Actos, Avandia and other similar drugs

[Nancy]

On another site that I frequent, there is a man who has diabetes and CHF. The doctor who was treating his diabetes put him on Actos and left him on it without checking for adverse reactions. It aggrevated his CHF to such a degree that his cardiologist was planning to do a surgical procedure to relieve pressure on his heart, and he was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. His family sought a second opinion and this doctor took a careful history, read all of the information from his files, and discovered that the Actos that he had been put on was causing this enormous fluid retention. He has been off Actos for a few days, and is starting to feel much, much better. He almost lost his life, and the final diagnosis wasn't an obvious one.

These drugs can also cause liver problems.

So if there is anyone who is on these medications for diabetes and/or liver problems and who also has CHF, it is something to be aware of. The FDA required the manufacturer to include additional warnings.

Here's a link:

http://www.drugintel.com/drugs/actos.htm

 

[maxximom]

Hi Nancy
I know that I don't post much..and I tend to lurk a lot..but you guuuuys are always in my heart ( no pun intended) and mind. I just had to respond to your post. Lat year my husband Allan was hospitalized with what they thought was CHF he was on both Actos and Norvasc. As soon he put on the Norvasc he started to have edema in both l;ower legs..his doctor said it was a common side effect and not to worry. The edema got worse and then he was told to wear compression hose..which only pushed the edema from his ankles to his upper legs. Finally one morning he started to get short of breath and I took him to the ER at Duke..he was admitted. Well to make the long story short the commbination of the Actos and Norvasc together had him retain so much fluid that they had to give him massive doses of Lasex ..He lost 20 pounds of fluid in 5 days.His kidneys just couldn't handle clearing the actos and Norvacs. He can never go on either of them again. He never really did have true CHF and passed a Cardiolite stress test with no problem. Of course trying to get the fact that he never had CHF off his records has been impossible..and every time he sees a doctor we have to go into a long explination. No question Actos is not for every diabetic. I take Actos..and have had no problem (yet) and I have been on it for many years.