Why the study?
Does routine periodic measurement of serum digoxin levels offer additional benefit in the management of elderly nursing home patients with cardiac disease?
Does routine periodic measurement of serum digoxin levels offer additional benefit in the management of elderly nursing home patients with cardiac disease?
Routine periodic measurement of serum digoxin concentration does not offer additional benefit in managing elderly nursing home patients with cardiac disease when adequate medical supervision is available.
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Serum digoxin monitoring may not aid management in supervised elderly patients; leaves open its value in prospective outcome studies.
An assessment was made of the clinical value of routine periodic measurement of serum digoxin levels in 51 elderly nursing home patients with cardiac disease. The findings showed that the serum digoxin level was not correlated with the dosage of digoxin nor the patient's clinical state of digitalization. All patients were effectively digitalized, as judged clinically, and no digitalis toxicity occurred despite a wide range of serum digoxin levels. When adequate medical supervision, electrocardiograms, roentgenograms, serum electrolyte determinations and renal function tests are available, the routine periodic measurement of serum digoxin concentration does not offer any additional benefit in the management of nursing home patients with cardiac disease.
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Dimant et al. (1978) studied this question.
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