Study Population
Patient charts from the Clinical Pharmacology clinic at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) were retrospectively reviewed for ADR cases. The London Health Sciences Centre is a regional tertiary care centre in London, Ontario which includes two adult hospitals and a Children’s Hospital, serving as the sole tertiary care referral centre for a region containing 2.5 million people.
Over the period of study between 2008 and 2015 there were 924 patients seen at the clinic for suspected ADRs. Of these, 529 charts were included in the study which contained all results from investigations such as allergy skin test, lymphocyte toxicity assay (LTA), in vitro platelet toxicity assay (iPTA) and radioallergosorbent test (RAST) and oral challenge.
The patients studied ranged in age from 1 month to 93 years of age. There were 227 males and 302 females in this study. The most common culprit drug in these suspected ADR cases were antibiotics such as penicillin class and sulfonamide. Other medications included various vaccines and chemotherapy drugs such as methotrexate and mercaptopurine.