Long-Term Care Survey Alert

Published on Thu Jul 23, 2009 PDF

• Beware a recent Digoxin recall. AS Medication Solutions, LLC, a drug repackage company, announced recently that it was voluntarily recalling all tablets of Caraco brand Digoxin, USP, 0.25 mg, distributed prior to March 31, 2009, which are not expired and are within the expiration date of August 2011, according to a Food & Drug Administration safety alert. The company is recalling the tablets because they may differ in size and therefore could have more or less digoxin in them. Look for: "a scored round biconvex white tablet imprinted with "441", with an NDC number of 54569-5758-0 (30- count)." Healthcare providers who have the product should return it to their place of purchase, states a press release from AS Medication Solutions.

That's according to researchers at Intermountain Medical Center who found:

Patients with atrial fibrillation were 44 percent more likely to develop dementia than patients without the heart disorder.

Patients who had both atrial fibrillation and dementia were 61percent more likely to die during the study period than dementia patients without the heart rhythm problem.

"Now that we've established this link, our focus will be to see if early treatment of atrial fibrillation can prevent dementia or the development of Alzheimer's disease," said cardiologist John Day, MD, director of heart rhythm services at Intermountain Medical Center and a co-author of the study, in a press statement.