Abstract

Tolerance of treatments is an important factor in compliance and quality of care for various pathologies. The objective of our study was to evaluate the prevalence of adverse events observed in patients at the Abidjan Cardiology Institute (ACI).  This descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study involved 200 patients of all ages who were undergoing drug treatment for cardiovascular diseases or other pathologies. These patients were either outpatients coming for consultations or were hospitalized in the medicine department of the Abidjan Cardiology Institute from February 1 to April 1, 2017, and all agreed to participate in the study after providing informed consent. The average age of the patients was 51.7 years (±18 years), with a predominance of women, resulting in a sex ratio of 0.81. The prevalence of adverse events was 24.5%. The majority of these events were dermatological and neurological, predominantly pruritus (39%) and dizziness (10.2%). Additionally, 79.6% of patients reported experiencing such an event once before. In 85.7% of these cases, the similar episode had occurred several years previously. In 69.4% of cases, the adverse events had resulted in incapacity or disability. Nevertheless, all patients had a favorable outcome with no sequelae. The drugs most frequently suspected of causing adverse events were antimalarial drugs (chloroquine; 37%), antihypertensives (26.5%), and analgesics (14.2%). The frequency of adverse events among patients at the ACI was considerable. Establishing a robust pharmacovigilance system at the ACI and integrating adverse event reporting into patients' therapeutic education would help to better assess this safety profile.

Key words: Cardiology, prevalence, pharmacovigilance, tolerance.