Analysis of canine cardiovascular therapeutic agent prescriptions using electronic health records in primary care veterinary practices in the United Kingdom.

Introduction/objectives: Canine cardiovascular (CV) diseases are often managed in primary care settings. The objectives were to describe CV therapeutic agent (CVTA) prescribing patterns in primary care practices in the United Kingdom (UK) and to evaluate recorded clinical signs, diagnostic tests and justifications for use of torasemide, a recently marketed and authorised loop-diuretic in the UK.
Animals, Materials and Methods: Electronic health records (EHRs) describing 3,579,420 consultations (1,043,042 unique dogs) were collated (1 April 2014 and 31 December 2018) by the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network from 270 veterinary practices. Consultations prescribing at least one CVTA were identified. Annual variation in individual CVTA prescriptions was analysed using mixed-effects binomial regression models. Free-text clinical narratives were manually read to determine the first-prescribing event for torasemide.
Results: Twenty-nine thousand and seven consultations (0.81% of all consultations, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76-0.86) prescribed CVTA in 14,148 (1.36%) dogs. Furosemide (52.8% of CV-prescribing consultations, 95% CI 50.7-54.9) and pimobendan (51.9%, 95% CI 50.1-53.7) were most prescribed. Longitudinal analysis (2014-2018) showed a significant negative temporal trend for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (p < 0.001), and furosemide (p = 0.003) and a positive temporal trend for pimobendan (p = 0.020) and torasemide (p < 0.001). First prescriptions of torasemide were identified in 16.5% of torasemide-prescribing consultations. Where justification for prescription of torasemide was identified (32.5%), furosemide resistance was the most common (92.0%).
Conclusions: EHRs can be used to temporally monitor prescribing habits, including responses to market authorisations. Despite authorisation in the UK for torasemide use as a first-line diuretic, it was most commonly prescribed after furosemide resistance.
Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest Statement Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (including Alan Radford and David Singleton) was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council and Dogs Trust during this study and has received prior funding from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and the British Small Animal Veterinary Association. Funding has also been received from various pharmaceutical companies in the past, but no funding was received for the work presented here. The other authors (EFB, EM and HHG) have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
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