Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Osteoporosis drug may increase risk of irregular heartbeat

A study shows that women who take the drug Fosamax ( also known as Alendronate) for osteoporosis may be at an increased risk of atrial fibrillation - an irregular heartbeat, reported the BBC.

The study compared 719 women with atrial fibrillation with over 966 controls and found the drug may increase the risk by 86%, higher than previous findings, but researchers concluded that the drug's benefits outweighed the risks for most women.

Source: "Use of Alendronate and Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation in Women" Archive of Internal Medicine. 2008;168(8):826-831

The BMJ published a study earlier concluded no increased risk of atrial fibrillation in women taking bisphosphonates - same class of drugs to which Fosamax belongs.

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