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There is a wealth of published information describing interactions between drugs used to treat cardiovascular disease and the genetic variations that can affect how patients respond to them. But few heart specialists make routine use of this potentially life-saving data. To help physicians make better-informed clinical decisions, researchers from the University of Chicago and Stanford University combed through scientific literature on the pharmacogenomics of 71 leading cardiovascular drugs and compiled summaries, published in an article in the June 2015 issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, where it was named the “Editor’s Choice” article. This article is titled “Evidence for Clinical Implementation of Pharmacogenomics in Cardiac Drugs.” The article is accompanied by an open-access editorial in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The editorial is titled “Clinical Implementation of Cardiovascular Pharmacogenomics.” "Tens of thousands of patients have been studied and the connections between common medications and the genetic variants that can lead to adverse drug reactions or treatment non-response have been described, but few physicians track this information or even know where to find it," said study author Peter H. O'Donnell, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. "One dose does not fit all," he said. "So we set out to boost awareness and simplify access. We assessed the quantity and quality of the literature, ranked the most relevant studies for clinicians and condensed the data into a series of prescribing decision aids." Cardiovascular drugs are a common cause of the estimated two million adverse drug reactions that occur each year in the United States. More than 50,000 patients are treated in emergency rooms annually for bad reactions to cardiovascular drugs.Login Or Register To Read Full Story