Fluoroquinolone warning on heart valves on NHS web site

[seasider18]

This is a story I have told before but the NHS web site reference to heart valves is new to me. I was actually given a massive injection of a Fluoroquinolone in the operating theatre prior to my aortic valve replacement in 2012. I had phoned the hospital to say that I had a prostate infection and was it OK to still have the operation. They said yes we can give you something for it. In the theatre they could not get a urinary catheter past my enlarged prostate and had to use a supra pubic one.

After the operation and on my feet I found that I had severe tendon pain that my GP could not understand. Several weeks of physio helped it. I had two later prostate infections and was prescribed a Fluoroquinolone one time and Cipro the next. Each time the tendonitis came back and I quickly stopped it. However once the drugs are in your they can be lay dormant and start up long after as mine did suddenly in 2016 or be triggered by other drugs in my case (one was Bisoprolol the other the antibiotic Clarithromycin) with a wide range of the symptoms they can cause. However they did not affect my new valve that has performed well. I did however develop AF after the operation that was twice successfully treated but I'm now in permanent AF.

Another reported problem with the drug is that it can lead to burst aortic aneurysms.

From the NHS web site.

Fluoroquinolones

Severe aches and pains

In very rare cases, fluoroquinolone antibiotics can cause disabling, long-lasting or permanent side effects affecting the joints, muscles and nervous system.

Stop taking fluoroquinolone treatment straight away and see your GP if you get a serious side effect including:

tendon, muscle or joint pain – usually in the knee, elbow or shoulder

tingling, numbness or pins and needles

Heart problems

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics can cause serious side effects in people who are at risk of heart valve problems.

Stop taking fluoroquinolone treatment straight away and see your GP if you get a serious side effect including:

swollen ankles, feet and legs (oedema)

new heart palpitations (heartbeats that suddenly become more noticeable)

sudden shortness of breath

[Ianc2]

Thanks for the warning , hopefully I will never need it.

[seasider18 in reply to Ianc2]

It is less prescribed now that more is known about its dangers and warnings were sent to all doctors. The PIF was amended but not enough about all of its dangers.

[Hidden]

Almost 6 years since I took FQs and still have problems now. I think it has caused me Mast Cell Activation Syndrome resulting in an histamine intolerance. I'm experimenting with my diet, seeing improvements and identifying triggers.

I'd recommending avoiding FQs to anyone unless it is a life and death situation. It's not worth the risk.

[seasider18 in reply to Hidden]

They are rather like Amiodarone in that they are effective but damaging in this case to your DNA and Mitochondria and should only be used as a last resort.

Mitochondria: why they are important

Mitochondria are organelles (tiny organisms) found in both animal and plant cells and probably originate from when everything was evolving together in the primeval soup. The number of mitochondria within a cell varies, depending on the type and function of that cell. Mature red blood cells, for instance, do not contain any mitochondria. This leaves room for the millions of haemoglobin molecules needed to transport oxygen throughout the body. Muscle cells, on the other hand, contain many thousands of mitochondria in order to provide the energy required for muscle activity; a heart muscle cell has around 5000. Mitochondria are not so abundant in fat cells, while liver cells are estimated to have about 2000.

biology.about.com/od/cellan...

So each of our trillions of cells has a nucleus with its own DNA, and then the majority of our cells also contain thousands of mitochondria, which have their own DNA (known as mtDNA). Mitochondria are literally the powerhouses of our bodies because they perform the vital task of generating ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the molecule that each cell uses for its energy needs. Mitochondrial damage, which can be caused by various factors including Quinolone antibiotics, is linked to symptoms such as fatigue, muscle pain, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, collagen vascular disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, or psychosomatic illness.

Find out more: Mitochondrial cytopathy in adults: what we know so far. B.H.Cohen & D.R.Gold 2001 - To download this paper as a PDF, please click this icon

Collagen: why it's important too

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body and is found in the bones, muscles, skin and tendons, where it forms a scaffold to provide strength and structure – it literally holds the whole body together.

There are at least 16 different types of collagen, but 80-90% of collagens in the body belong to types I, II and III. Type I collagen fibrils are particularly tensile, and are stronger than steel, gram for gram. These are found in tendons, skin, artery walls, cornea, the covering surrounding muscle fibres, fibrocartilage (e.g. the discs between the vertebrae), and the organic part of bones and teeth.

Type II is found in the vitreous humour of the eye, and type III is found in the artery walls, skin, intestines and the uterus.

Collagen plays numerous important roles in health, and thus the breakdown and depletion of the body's natural collagen is associated with a number of health problems. Mitochondrial damage caused by fluoroquinolones can affect collagen all over the body, creating many diverse symptoms such as eye problems and Achilles-tendon pain. Fluoroquinolones prevent energy synthesis, not only impairing the way the cells replicate themselves but also accelerating cell breakdown. Simply put, all collagen cells are at risk of being destroyed, while regrowth is impaired with essential crosslinks and fibres not forming. This results in structural weakness and instability. Because of impaired regrowth, the biggest problem for sufferers is that the tendons are very likely to be further damaged by normal sports-injury therapy. Many sufferers have discovered to their cost that physiotherapy treatment, or even just trying to exercise, causes the damage to worsen.

Find out more: Electron microscopy has confirmed that fluoroquinolones can cause the tendon cells to die prematurely (4/5/6).

4. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

The Risk of Fluoroquinolone-induced Tendinopathy and Tendon Rupture.

G.K.Kim. 2005

5. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/262...

Nonantibiotic Effects of Fluoroquinolones in Mammalian Cells. Badal et al. 2015

6. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/158...

Sendzik J, Shakibaei M, Schafer-Korting M, Stahlmann R. Fluoroquinolones cause changes in extracellular matrix, signaling proteins, metalloproteinases and caspase-3 in cultured human tendon cells. Toxicology. 2005; 212