The single dose method of administering cholestyramine.
A new and simplified method for the administration of cholestyramine is presented. It has been our finding that the total daily dose of the resin (as indicated below) may be administered once a day in a single dose at any time during the waking hours, without reference to meals, and the resulting degree of cholesterol lowering is as great or greater than that obtained by the same dose with the traditional method of t.i.d. administration of cholestyramine. Doses of 12 or 16 gm per day, have been administered as a single dose to adult patients. We have not encountered side effects from the administration of this resin as a single dose, however an occasional patient has objected to the volume involved, and has preferred to take a smaller volume 2 or 3 times daily. Because of the bulk involved in the administration of larger doses, we have found it expedient to give doses of 24 gms per day by dividing the dose in half and administering it twice daily without reference to meals. The 21 patients in our study who received cholestyramine in the single daily dose obtained an average reduction of their serum cholesterol of 21.58% over baseline values. Twenty patients receiving a somewhat larger dose, administered twice daily (b.i.d. dose), obtained a 27.57% reduction in the serum cholesterol, and out of this entire series there were 22 patients who had at other times received the cholestyramine by the t.i.d. regimen. They had obtained a 25.61% reduction of their serum cholesterol (by the t.i.d. regimen). All 3 average percent reductions compared to 0 are highly significant (p is less than 0.0001). One hundred forty out-patients treated by the conventional t.i.d. program of administration obtained a 16.8% reduction in the serum cholesterol. This includes some patients taking relatively small and less effective doses. Our entire series of 238 patients (to be reported subsequently) treated as out-patients have obtained an average reduction of 22% of their serum cholesterols. There has been no statistically significant influence on the levels of the serum triglycerides during cholestyramine therapy in this series (results on 69 patients showed an average rise of 5.9 mg per 100 ml in the serum triglycerides). See discussion in text. Some studies have indicated a rise of serum triglycerides during cholestyramine therapy. It is recommended that triglycerides be monitored periodically during the course of cholestyramine treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D002792:Cholestyramine Resin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D006938:Hyperlipoproteinemia Type II / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood
D014280:Triglycerides; D002792:Cholestyramine Resin; D002784:Cholesterol