Patient/caregiver was educated on the side effects of using Rosiglitazone as follows:
Cardiac arrhythmias
- Rosiglitazone use carries the risk of causing fast, pounding, and abnormal heartbeat, leading to severe debility, cardiac arrhythmias, and associated complications.
- Individuals can present with episodes of chest pain, rapid heart rate, palpitations, dizziness, and shortness of breath.
- This risk is even more in individuals with history of abnormal heartbeat and cardiac arrhythmias.
Macular edema
- Macula is the central portion of the retina that helps us to have the most clear and sharpest vision. A layer of nerve tissue exists beneath the retina and macula. Retinal and macular contact with this nerve tissue is important for the visual signal to be conducted to the brain, processed, and finally, to be able to see.
- Rosiglitazone use can result in fluid retention in the macula, resulting in swelling of macula and macular edema.
- Macular edema detaches the macula from the nerve tissue beneath. This leads to poor conduction of visual signals to the brain, impaired processing of the image, and consequently, leads to blurred vision.
Weak bones
- Bone remodeling is a continuous lifetime process involving removal of the mature bone tissue from the skeletal framework (bone resorption) and deposition of new bone into the skeletal framework.
- Rosiglitazone use can result in increased resorption of the existing bone framework and decreased new bone formation.
- This contributes to weakening of the skeletal framework, resulting in episodes of sharp bone pain and pathological fractures.
- Female sex hormone estrogen plays a significant role in synthesis of new bone and maintaining bone health. As estrogen levels drop in menopause, women in menopausal age group are naturally at high risk for weakened bone framework and fractures. So, use of rosiglitazone can be of heightened concern in menopausal women.
