Parrkinson's Drugs Could Cause Valve Risk

RLF Staff

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About one in four patients taking pergolide or cabergoline show signs of heart-valve damage according to two studies.

A U.S. official to call for a halt in the use of two drugs used for Parkinson's disease, pergolide and cabergoline due to an increased risk of heart-valve damage.

Patients who took pergolide or cabergoline are four to seven times as likely to suffer heart-valve damage as patients who did not, reported two studies in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

In a British study, 19 percent of patients taking pergolide or cabergoline suffered heart-valve damage. An Italian study found heart-valve damage in 23 percent of patients who took pergolide and almost 29 percent for those prescribed cabergoline.

Click here to read the full report from National Institutes of Health