In a recent issue of PNAS, Zhang et al. (1) find that digoxin inhibits HIF-1 (a transcription factor highly involved in cancer development) and suggest that this effect might be observed in patients taking this drug. They also report that digoxin blocks tumor growth in mice (1). These data suggest that digoxin has anticancer potential. The authors observe that digoxin inhibits HIF-1 at 100 nM a...

We examined the specificity of three automated digoxin immunoassays (Abbott TDxFLx Digoxin II assay, Baxter-Dade Stratus II Digoxin assay, and Ciba Corning ACS Digoxin assay) applied without modification to (a) sera from 229 digoxin-free patients in 12 cohorts associated with nonspecific or endogenous digoxin-like immunoreactive factor (DLIF) interference, and (b) drug-free serum supplemented w...

When propafenone is given with digoxin, digoxin serum concentrations increase. Although the digoxin-propafenone interaction is well known clinically, the mechanism by which propafenone interferes with digoxin elimination is unclear. To test the hypothesis that propafenone or one or both of its two major metabolites, 5-hydroxypropafenone (5-OHP) and N-depropylpropafenone (NDPP), inhibit the P-gl...

1. The effects of tenidap sodium and placebo on digoxin pharmacokinetics were compared in 14 healthy young men, in a double-blind, parallel-group study lasting for 24 days. 2. Subjects were administered digoxin alone for the first 10 days and digoxin plus tenidap 120 mg day-1 or placebo for the remaining 14 days. 3. Changes in the means between day 10 (digoxin monotherapy) and day 24 (combined ...

Digoxin is rarely used in modern cardiovascular disease management. Therefore, digoxin toxicity has been infrequently encountered and it paramount to diagnose a timely fashion. Bidirectional ventricular tachycardia an unusual arrhythmia wherein every other beat different QRS axis as travels alternately down conduction pathways. The can be manifestation of myocarditis, myocardial infarct, Anders...

A rapid, sensitive, and precise method for measuring the plasma digoxin concentration has been developed with the radioimmunoassay technique. Seventy patients receiving digoxin were shown to have plasma digoxin concentrations between 0.4 and 5 ng./ml. Preliminary studies show that though there is a positive correlation between total daily dose and the plasma digoxin concentration, the relations...

Current immunoassays for digoxin do not distinguish digoxin from its glycosidic metabolites. We have synthesized a novel digoxin/bovine serum albumin conjugate via reductive ozonolysis of the lactone ring such that the carbohydrate moiety of digoxin remains intact. Antibodies raised against this conjugate show minimal cross reactivity to digoxigenin, bisdigitoxide, monodigitoxide, digoxigenin, ...

Digoxin is one of the few therapeutic drugs for which antidotal therapy is available (1). Administration of Fab fragments has successfully been used to reverse the effects of life-threatening digoxin overdoses for over 20 years. Digoxin-specific Fab fragments are produced by cleaving sheep digoxin-specific IgG with papain to form two Fab fragments (50 000 Da each) and one 50 000-Da Fc fragment ...

Endogenous, circulating digoxin-like immunoreactive factors (DLIF) are known to cross react with many antisera used in digoxin assays, complicating the quantification of serum digoxin. We have explored ways to decrease or remove the interference from DLIF in such assays. Prolonging the assay incubation from 30 to 60 min decreased apparent digoxin concentrations (attributable to DLIF) by an aver...