Heart Disease Link To Diet Drugs Prompts FDA Action

A study conducted at the Mayo Clinic in the USA has uncovered a possibleassociation between the use of the "fen-phen" (fenfluramine and phentermine) combination of weight-loss drugs and valvular heart disease. The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a letter advising physicians of the link.

Physicians at the Mayo Clinic came across their first case of valvular heart disease after fen-phen therapy about a year ago, and since then have been accumulating a database on the phenomenon. "We began to notice that otherwise healthy young women, presenting with this unusual form of valve disease, were also on fen-phen," according to Heidi Connolly of the Clinic.

Unusual Valve Morphology At a press conference, Dr Connolly described the cases of 24 healthy women who were free of heart disease and who had taken fen-phen in combination for almost one year. Patients presented with cardiovascular symptoms and/or heart murmurs, and all 24 were subsequently found to have unusual valve morphology and regurgitation (back leaking) on echocardiography testing.