[Grapefruit consumption and food-drug interaction hazard]

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of grapefruit consumption in patients admitted to a tertiary care emergency department (ED) and its potential impact on the risk of fruit-drug interaction.

Methods: Observational cross-sectional study conducted in a medical ED between July and December 2009. Data analysis searched for the main drugs which can dramatically interact with grapefruit and for adverse drug events (ADEs). Among the 162 patients who were interviewed, 59 (36%) reported grapefruit consumption (regardless form or frequency) and 11 (7%) were prescribed a treatment with a risk of fruit-drug interaction. No ADE could be related to an interaction with grapefruit. Calcium channel blockers and HMG-coA-reductase inhibitors mostly accounted for drugs at risk of interaction in grapefruit consumers.

Conclusion: These results give evidence of the sizeable risk of grapefruit-drug interaction in the prescriptions of patients admitted to a medical ED, with a high proportion of commonly used medicines but poor clinical consequences.