General
All patients receiving diure tic therapy should be observed for evidence of
fluid or electrolyte imbalance, eg, hypomagnesemia, hyponatremia, hypochloremic
alkalosis, and hypokalemia or hyperkalemia.
Serum and urine electrolyte determinations are particularly important when the patient is vomiting excessively or receiving parenteral fluids. Warning signs or symptoms of fluid and electrolyte imbalance, irrespective of cause, include dryness of the mouth, thirst, weakness, lethargy, drowsiness, restlessness, muscle pains or cramps, muscular fatigue, hypotension, oliguria, tachycardia, and gastrointestinal disturbances such as nausea and vomiting. Hyperkalemia may occur in patients with impaired renal function or excessive potassium intake and can cause cardiac irregularities, which may be fatal. Consequently, no potassium supplement should ordinarily be given with Aldactazide.
Concomitant administration of potassium-sparing diuretics and ACE inhibitors
or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), eg, indomethacin, has been
associated with severe hyperkalemia.
If hyperkalemia is suspected (warning signs include paresthesia, muscle weakness, fatigue, flaccid paralysis of the extremities, bradycardia and shock) an electrocardiogram (ECG) should be obtained. However, it is important to monitor serum potassium levels because mild hyperkalemia may not be associated with ECG changes.
If hyperkalemia is present, Aldactazide should be discontinued immediately. With severe hyperkalemia, the clinical situation dictates the procedures to be employed. These include the intravenous administration of calcium chloride solution, sodium bicarbonate solution and/or the oral or parenteral administration of glucose with a rapid-acting insulin preparation. These are temporary measures to be repeated as required. Cationic exchange resins such as sodium polystyrene sulfonate may be orally or rectally administered. Persistent hyperkalemia may require dialysis.
Hypokalemia may develop as a result of profound diuresis, particularly when Aldactazide is used concomitantly with loop diuretics, glucocorticoids, or ACTH, when severe cirrhosis is present or after prolonged therapy. Interference with adequate oral electrolyte intake will also contribute to hypokalemia. Hypokalemia may cause cardiac arrhythmias and may exaggerate the effects of digitalis therapy. Potassium depletion may induce signs of digitalis intoxication at previously tolerated dosage levels. Although any chloride deficit is generally mild and usually does not require specific treatment except under extraordinary circumstances (as in liver disease or renal disease), chloride replacement may be required in the treatment of metabolic alkalosis.
Aldactazide therapy may cause a transient elevation of BUN. This appears to represent a concentration phenomenon rather than renal toxicity, since the BUN level returns to normal after use of Aldactazide is discontinued. Progressive elevation of BUN is suggestive of the presence of preexisting renal impairment.
Reversible hyperchloremic metabolic acidosis, usually in association with hyperkalemia, has been reported to occur in some patients with decompensated hepatic cirrhosis, even in the presence of normal renal function.
Dilutional hyponatremia, manifested by dryness of the mouth, thirst, lethargy,
and drowsiness, and confirmed by a low serum sodium level, may be induced, especially
when Aldactazide is administered in combination with other diuretics, and dilutional
hyponatremia may occur in edematous patients in hot weather; appropriate therapy
is water restriction rather than administration of sodium, except in rare instances
when the hyponatremia is life-threatening. A true low-salt syndrome may rarely
develop with Aldactazide therapy and may be manifested by increasing mental
confusion similar to that observed with hepatic coma. This syndrome is differentiated
from dilutional hyponatremia in that it does not occur with obvious fluid retention.
Its treatment requires that diuretic therapy be discontinued and sodium administered.
Hyperuricemia may occur or acute gout may be precipitated in certain patients receiving thiazides. Thiazides have been shown to increase the urinary excretion of magnesium; this may result in hypomagnesemia. Increases in cholesterol and triglyceride levels may be associated with thiazide diuretic therapy.
In diabetic patients, dosage adjustments of insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents may be required. Hyperglycemia may occur with thiazide diuretics. Thus, latent diabetes mellitus may become manifest during thiazide therapy.
The antihypertensive effects of Aldactazide may be enhanced in the post-sympathetectomy patient. If progressive renal impairment becomes evident, consider withholding or discontinuing diuretic therapy.
Thiazides may decrease urinary calcium excretion. Thiazides may cause intermittent and slight elevation of serum calcium in the absence of known disorders of calcium metabolism. Marked hypercalcemia may be evidence of hidden hyperparathyroidism. Thiazides should be discontinued before carrying out tests for parathyroid function. Pathologic changes in the parathyroid gland with hypercalcemia and hypophosphatemia have been observed in patients on prolonged thiazide therapy.
Gynecomastia may develop in association with the use of spironolactone; physicians should be alert to its possible onset. The development of gynecomastia appears to be related to both dosage level and duration of therapy and is normally reversible when Aldactazide is discontinued. In rare instances some breast enlargement may persist when Aldactazide is discontinued.
Laboratory tests
Periodic determination of serum electrolytes to detect possible electrolyte
imbalance should be done at appropriate intervals, particularly in the elderly
and those with significant renal or hepatic impairments.
Carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, impairment of fertility
Spironolactone: Orally administered spironolactone has been shown to
be a tumorigen in dietary administration studies performed in rats, with its
proliferative effects manifested on endocrine organs and the liver. In an 18-month
study using doses of about 50, 150 and 500 mg/kg/day, there were statistically
significant increases in benign adenomas of the thyroid and testes and, in male
rats, a dose-related increase in proliferative changes in the liver (including
hepatocytomegaly and hyperplastic nodules). In a 24-month study in which the
same strain of rat was administered doses of about 10, 30, 100 and 150 mg spironolactone/kg/day,
the range of proliferative effects included significant increases in hepatocellular
adenomas and testicular interstitial cell tumors in males, and significant increases
in thyroid follicular cell adenomas and carcinomas in both sexes. There was
also a statistically significant, but not dose-related, increase in benign uterine
endometrial stromal polyps in females.
A dose-related (above 20 mg/kg/day) incidence of myelocytic leukemia was observed in rats fed daily doses of potassium canrenoate (a compound chemically similar to spironolactone and whose primary metabolite, canrenone, is also a major product of spironolactone in man) for a period of one year. In two year studies in the rat, oral administration of potassium canrenoate was associated with myelocytic leukemia and hepatic, thyroid, testicular and mammary tumors.
Neither spironolactone nor potassium canrenoate produced mutagenic effects
in tests using bacteria or yeast. In the absence of metabolic activation, neither
spironolactone nor potassium canrenoate has been shown to be mutagenic in mammalian
tests in vitro. In the presence of metabolic activation, spironolactone
has been reported to be negative in some mammalian mutagenicity tests in
vitro and inconclusive (but slightly positive) for mutagenicity in other
mammalian tests in vitro. In the presence of metabolic activation, potassium
canrenoate has been reported to test positive for mutagenicity in some mammalian
tests in vitro, inconclusive in others, and negative in still others.
In a three-litter reproduction study in which female rats received dietary doses of 15 and 50 mg spironolactone/kg/day, there were no effects on mating and fertility, but there was a small increase in incidence of stillborn pups at 50 mg/kg/day. When injected into female rats (100 mg/kg/day for 7 days, i.p.), spironolactone was found to increase the length of the estrous cycle by prolonging diestrus during treatment and inducing constant diestrus during a two week posttreatment observation period. These effects were associated with retarded ovarian follicle development and a reduction in circulating estrogen levels, which would be expected to impair mating, fertility and fecundity. Spironolactone (100 mg/kg/day), administered i.p. to female mice during a two week cohabitation period with untreated males, decreased the number of mated mice that conceived (effect shown to be caused by an inhibition of ovulation) and decreased the number of implanted embryos in those that became pregnant (effect shown to be caused by an inhibition of implantation), and at 200 mg/kg, also increased the latency period to mating.
Hydrochlorothiazide: Two-year feeding studies in mice and rats conducted
under the auspices of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) uncovered no evidence
of a carcinogenic potential of hydrochlorothiazide in female mice (at doses
of up to approximately 600 mg/kg/day) or in male and female rats (at doses of
up to approximately 100 mg/kg/day). The NTP, however, found equivocal evidence
for hepatocarcinogenicity in male mice.
Hydrochlorothiazide was not genotoxic in in vitro assays using strains
TA 98, TA 100, TA 1535, TA 1537 and TA 1538 of Salmonella typhimurium
(Ames assay) and in the Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) test for chromosomal aberrations,
or in in vivo assays using mouse germinal cell chromosomes, Chinese hamster
bone marrow chromosomes, and the Drosophila sex-linked recessive lethal
trait gene. Positive test results were obtained only in the in vitro
CHO Sister Chromatid Exchange (clastogenicity) and in the Mouse Lymphoma Cell
(mutagenicity) assays, using concentrations of hydrochlorothiazide from 43 to
1300 µg/ml, and in the Aspergillus nidulans nondisjunction assay at an
unspecified concentration.
Hydrochlorothiazide had no adverse effects on the fertility of mice and rats of either sex in studies wherein these species were exposed, via their diet, to doses of up to 100 and 4 mg/kg, respectively, prior to mating and throughout gestation.
Pregnancy
Teratogenic effects
Pregnancy Category C.
Hydrochlorothiazide: Studies in which hydrochlorothiazide was
orally administered to pregnant mice and rats during their respective periods
of major organogenesis at doses up to 3000 and 1000 mg hydrochlorothiazide/kg,
respectively, provided no evidence of harm to the fetus. There are, however,
no adequate and well controlled studies in pregnant women.
Spironolactone: Teratology studies with spironolactone have been
carried out in mice and rabbits at doses of up to 20 mg/kg/day. On a body surface
area basis, this dose in the mouse is substantially below the maximum recommended
human dose and, in the rabbit, approximates the maximum recommended human dose.
No teratogenic or other embryo-toxic effects were observed in mice, but the
20 mg/kg dose caused an increased rate of resorption and a lower number of live
fetuses in rabbits. Because of its anti-androgenic activity and the requirement
of testosterone for male morphogenesis, spironolactone may have the potential
for adversely affecting sex differentiation of the male during embryogenesis.
When administered to rats at 200 mg/kg/day between gestation days 13 and 21
(late embryogenesis and fetal development), feminization of male fetuses was
observed. Offspring exposed during late pregnancy to 50 and 100 mg/kg/day doses
of spironolactone exhibited changes in the reproductive tract including dose-dependent
decreases in weights of the ventral prostate and seminal vesicle in males, ovaries
and uteri that were enlarged in females, and other indications of endocrine
dysfunction, that persisted into adulthood. There are no adequate and well-controlled
studies with Aldactazide in pregnant women. Spironolactone has known endocrine
effects in animals including progestational and antiandrogenic effects. The
antiandrogenic effects can result in apparent estrogenic side effects in humans,
such as gynecomastia. Therefore, the use of Aldactazide in pregnant women requires
that the anticipated benefit be weighed against the possible hazards to the
fetus.
Non-teratogenic effects: Spironolactone or its metabolites may,
and hydrochlorothiazide does, cross the placental barrier and appear in cord
blood. Therefore, the use of Aldactazide in pregnant women requires that the
anticipated benefit be weighed against possible hazards to the fetus. The hazards
include fetal or neonatal jaundice, thrombocytopenia, and possibly other adverse
reactions that have occurred in adults.
Nursing mothers
Canrenone, a major (and active) metabolite of spironolactone, appears in human
breast milk. Because spironolactone has been found to be tumorigenic in rats,
a decision should be made whether to discontinue the drug, taking into account
the importance of the drug to the mother. If use of the drug is deemed essential,
an alternative method of infant feeding should be instituted.
Pediatric use
Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established.
Last updated on RxList: 12/16/2008