Pharmacovigilance and Pharmacoepidemiology Clinical Particularities of Drug-Induced Agranulocytosis or Severe Neutropenia in Elderly Patients

Agranulocytosis is a life-threatening disorder in any age and also in the elderly subjects who are receiving on the average a larger number of drugs than younger subjects. This disorder frequently occurs as an adverse reaction to drugs, particularly to antibiotics, antiplatelet agents, antithyroid drugs, neuroleptics or anti-epileptic agents and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents. Although patients experiencing drug-induced agranulocytosis may initially be asymptomatic, the severity of the neutropenia usually translates into the onset of severe sepsis that requires intravenous broad-spectrum antibiotherapy. In this setting, hematopoietic growth factors have been shown to shorten the duration of neutropenia. Thus with appropriate management, the mortality rate of idiosyncratic drug-induced agranulocytosis is now of 5 to 10%. Today, drug-induced agranulocytosis still remains a rare event with an annual incidence from 3 to 12 cases per millions of people. However, given the increased life expectancy and subsequent longer exposure to drugs, as well as the development of new agents, physicians should be aware of this complication and its management. Affiliation: 1Department of Internal Medicine, Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France 2Department of Internal Medicine and Hematology, CHRU Mohamed VI, 06000 Oujda, Morocco 3Department Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France *Corresponding author: Emmanuel Andrès, Service de Médecine Interne, Diabète et Maladies métaboliques, Clinique Médicale B, Hôpital Civil, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, 1 Porte de l’Hôpital, 67 091 Strasbourg Cedex, France, Tel: 33-(3)-88-11-50-66; Fax: 33-(3)-88-11-62-62 E-mail: [email protected] Citation: Andrès E, Mourot RC, Keller O, Serraj K, Vogel T (2015) Clinical Particularities of DrugInduced Agranulocytosis or Severe Neutropenia in Elderly Patients. PAP 104:1-4 Received: Sep 15, 2015 Accepted: Dec 04, 2015 Published: Dec 11, 2015 Copyright: © 2015 Andres E, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.