Amipramizide is used in combination with other medicines to treat high blood pressure (hypertension). High blood pressure adds to the workload of the heart and arteries. If it continues for a long time, the heart and arteries may not function properly. This can damage the blood vessels of the brain, heart, and kidneys, resulting in a stroke, heart failure, or kidney failure. High blood pressure may also increase the risk of heart attacks. These problems may be less likely to occur if blood pressure is controlled.
Amipramizide is also used to treat water retention (edema) in patients with congestive heart failure.
Amipramizide is a type of diuretic (water pill) that helps prevent your body from losing too much potassium. It reduces the amount of water in the body by increasing the flow of urine, which helps lower the blood pressure.
Amipramizide is available only with your doctor's prescription.
Amipramizide indications
An indication is a term used for the list of condition or symptom or illness for which the medicine is prescribed or used by the patient. For example, acetaminophen or paracetamol is used for fever by the patient, or the doctor prescribes it for a headache or body pains. Now fever, headache and body pains are the indications of paracetamol. A patient should be aware of the indications of medications used for common conditions because they can be taken over the counter in the pharmacy meaning without prescription by the Physician.
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Amipramizide (Amipramizide) is indicated as adjunctive treatment with thiazide diuretics or other kaliuretic-diuretic agents in congestive heartfailure or hypertension to:
a. help restore normal serum potassium levels in patients who develop hypokalemia on the kaliuretic diuretic
b. prevent development of hypokalemia in patients who would be exposed to particular risk if hypokalemia were to develop, e. g., digitalized patients or patients with significant cardiac arrhythmias.
The use of potassium-conserving agents is often unnecessary in patients receiving diuretics for uncomplicated essential hypertension when such patients have a normal diet. Amipramizide (Amipramizide) has little additive diuretic or antihypertensive effect when added to a thiazide diuretic.
Amipramizide (Amipramizide) should rarely be used alone. It has weak (compared with thiazides) diuretic and antihypertensive effects. Used as single agents, potassium sparing diuretics, including Amipramizide (Amipramizide), result in an increased risk of hyperkalemia (approximately 10% with Amipramizide). Amipramizide (Amipramizide) should be used alone only when persistent hypokalemia has been documented and only with careful titration of the dose and close monitoring of serum electrolytes.
How should I use Amipramizide?
Use Amipramizide as directed by your doctor. Check the label on the medicine for exact dosing instructions.
Take Amipramizide by mouth with food.
Amipramizide may increase the amount of urine or cause you to urinate more often when you first start taking it. To keep this from disturbing your sleep, try to take your dose before 6 pm.
If you miss a dose of Amipramizide, take it as soon as possible. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not take 2 doses at once.
Ask your health care provider any questions you may have about how to use Amipramizide.
Uses of Amipramizide in details
There are specific as well as general uses of a drug or medicine. A medicine can be used to prevent a disease, treat a disease over a period or cure a disease. It can also be used to treat the particular symptom of the disease. The drug use depends on the form the patient takes it. It may be more useful in injection form or sometimes in tablet form. The drug can be used for a single troubling symptom or a life-threatening condition. While some medications can be stopped after few days, some drugs need to be continued for prolonged period to get the benefit from it.
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Use: Labeled Indications
Heart failure or hypertension: Counteracts potassium loss induced by other diuretics in the treatment of hypertension or heart failure; usually used in conjunction with more potent diuretics such as thiazides or loop diuretics
Note: Potassium-sparing diuretics are not recommended for the initial treatment of hypertension (ACC/AHA [Whelton 2017]).
Off Label Uses
Ascites
Data from a small randomized controlled trial in patients with nonazotemic cirrhosis treated with Amipramizide or potassium canrenoate support use of Amipramizide (although less effective than potassium canrenoate) for management of ascites in patients who do not tolerate treatment with spironolactone.
Amipramizide description
A pyrazine compound inhibiting sodium reabsorption through sodium channels in renal epithelial cells. This inhibition creates a negative potential in the luminal membranes of principal cells, located in the distal convoluted tubule and collecting duct. Negative potential reduces secretion of potassium and hydrogen ions. Amipramizide is used in conjunction with diuretics to spare potassium loss. (From Gilman et al., Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 9th ed, p705)
Amipramizide dosage
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Amipramizide Dosage
Generic name: Amipramizide hydrochloride
Dosage form: tablets
The information at Drugs.com is not a substitute for medical advice. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist.
Amipramizide should be administered with food.
Amipramizide, one 5 mg tablet daily, should be added to the usual antihypertensive or diuretic dosage of a kaliuretic diuretic. The dosage may be increased to 10 mg per day, if necessary. More than two 5 mg tablets of Amipramizide daily usually are not needed, and there is little controlled experience with such doses. If persistent hypokalemia is documented with 10 mg, the dose can be increased to 15 mg, then 20 mg, with careful monitoring of electrolytes.
In treating patients with congestive heart failure after an initial diuresis has been achieved, potassium loss may also decrease and the need for Amipramizide should be re-evaluated. Dosage adjustment may be necessary. Maintenance therapy may be on an intermittent basis.
If it is necessary to use Amipramizide alone, the starting dosage should be one 5 mg tablet daily. This dosage may be increased to 10 mg per day, if necessary. More than two 5 mg tablets usually are not needed, and there is little controlled experience with such doses. If persistent hypokalemia is documented with 10 mg, the dose can be increased to 15 mg, then 20 mg, with careful monitoring of electrolytes.
When Amipramizide HCl is administered concomitantly with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, the risk of hyperkalemia may be increased. Therefore, if concomitant use of these agents is indicated because of demonstrated hypokalemia, they should be used with caution and with frequent monitoring of serum potassium.
Lithium generally should not be given with diuretics because they reduce its renal clearance and add a high risk of lithium toxicity. Read circulars for lithium preparations before use of such concomitant therapy.
In some patients, the administration of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent can reduce the diuretic, natriuretic, and antihypertensive effects of loop, potassium-sparing and thiazide diuretics. Therefore, when Amipramizide (Amipramizide) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents are used concomitantly, the patient should be observed closely to determine if the desired effect of the diuretic is obtained. Since indomethacin and potassium-sparing diuretics, including Amipramizide (Amipramizide), may each be associated with increased serum potassium levels, the potential effects on potassium kinetics and renal function should be considered when these agents are administered concurrently.
Amipramizide (Amipramizide) is usually well tolerated and except for hyperkalemia (serum potassium levels greater than 5.5 mEq per liter † see BOXED WARNING), significant adverse effects have been reported infrequently. Minor adverse reactions were reported relatively frequently (about 20%) but the relationship of many of the reports to Amipramizide HCl is uncertain and the overall frequency was similar in hydrochlorothiazide treated groups. Nausea/anorexia, abdominal pain, flatulence, and mild skin rash have been reported and probably are related to Amipramizide. Other adverse experiences that have been reported with Amipramizide are generally those known to be associated with diuresis, or with the underlying disease being treated.
The adverse reactions for Amipramizide (Amipramizide) listed in the following table have been arranged into two groups: (1) incidence greater than one percent; and (2) incidence one percent or less. The incidence for group (1) was determined from clinical studies conducted in the United States (837 patients treated with Amipramizide (Amipramizide) ). The adverse effects listed in group (2) include reports from the same clinical studies and voluntary reports since marketing. The probability of a causal relationship exists between Amipramizide (Amipramizide) and these adverse reactions, some of which have been reported only rarely.
Incidence >1%
Incidence ≤ 1%
Body as a Whole
Headache**
Weakness
Fatigability
Back pain
Chest pain
Neck/shoulder ache
Pain, extremities
Cardiovascular
None
Angina pectoris
Orthostatic hypotension
Arrhythmia
Palpitation
Digestive
Nausea/anorexia**
Diarrhea**
Vomiting**
Abdominal pain
Gas pain
Appetite changes
Constipation
Jaundice
GI bleeding
Abdominal fullness
GI disturbance
Thirst
Heartburn
Flatulence
Dyspepsia
Metabolic
Elevated serum potassium levels (> 5.5 mEq per Liter)***
None
Skin
None
Skin rash
Itching
Dryness of mouth
Pruritus
Alopecia
Musculoskeletal
Muscle cramps
Joint pain
Leg ache
Nervous
Dizziness
Encephalopathy
Paresthesia
Tremors
Vertigo
Psychiatric
None
Nervousness
Mental confusion
Insomnia
Decreased libido
Depression
Somnolence
Respiratory
Cough
Dyspnea
Shortness of breath
Special Senses
None
Visual disturbances
Nasal congestion
Tinnitus
Increased intraocular pressure
Urogenital
Impotence
Polyuria
Dysuria
Urinary frequency
Bladder spasms
Gynecomastia
** Reactions occurring in 3% to 8% of patients treated with Amipramizide (Amipramizide). (Those reactions occurring in less than 3% of the patients are unmarked.)
*** See BOXED WARNING.
Causal Relationship Unknown: Other reactions have been reported but occurred under circumstances where a causal relationship could not be established. However, in these rarely reported events, that possibility cannot be excluded. Therefore, these observations are listed to serve as alerting information to physicians.
Amipramizide HCl tablets should not be used in the presence of elevated serum potassium levels (greater than 5.5 mEq per liter).
Antikaliuretic Therapy or Potassium Supplementation
Amipramizide HCl tablets should not be given to patients receiving other potassium-conserving agents, such as spironolactone or triamterene. Potassium supplementation in the form of medication, potassium-containing salt substitutes or a potassium-rich diet should not be used with Amipramizide HCl tablets except in severe and/or refractory cases of hypokalemia. Such concomitant therapy can be associated with rapid increases in serum potassium levels. If potassium supplementation is used, careful monitoring of the serum potassium level is necessary.
Impaired Renal Function
Anuria, acute or chronic renal insufficiency, and evidence of diabetic nephropathy are contraindications to the use of Amipramizide HCl tablets. Patients with evidence of renal functional impairment (blood urea nitrogen [BUN] levels over 30 mg per 100 mL or serum creatinine levels over 1.5 mg per 100 mL) or diabetes mellitus should not receive the drug without careful, frequent and continuing monitoring of serum electrolytes, creatinine, and BUN levels. Potassium retention associated with the use of an antikaliuretic agent is accentuated in the presence of renal impairment and may result in the rapid development of hyperkalemia.
Hypersensitivity
Amipramizide HCl tablets are contraindicated in patients who are hypersensitive to this product.
WARNINGS
Hyperkalemia
Like other potassium-conserving agents, Amipramizide may cause hyperkalemia (serum potassium levels greater than 5.5 mEq per liter) which, if uncorrected, is potentially fatal. Hyperkalemia occurs commonly (about 10%) when Amipramizide is used without a kaliuretic diuretic. This incidence is greater in patients with renal impairment, diabetes mellitus (with or without recognized renal insufficiency), and in the elderly. When Amipramizide is used concomitantly with a thiazide diuretic in patients without these complications, the risk of hyperkalemia is reduced to about 1-2%. It is thus essential to monitor serum potassium levels carefully in any patient receiving Amipramizide, particularly when it is first introduced, at the time of diuretic dosage adjustments, and during any illness that could affect renal function.
The risk of hyperkalemia may be increased when potassium-conserving agents, including Amipramizide HCl, are administered concomitantly with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, cyclosporine or tacrolimus. Warning signs or symptoms of hyperkalemia include paresthesias, muscular weakness, fatigue, flaccid paralysis of the extremities, bradycardia, shock, and ECG abnormalities. Monitoring of the serum potassium level is essential because mild hyperkalemia is not usually associated with an abnormal ECG.
When abnormal, the ECG in hyperkalemia is characterized primarily by tall, peaked T waves or elevations from previous tracings. There may also be lowering of the R wave and increased depth of the S wave, widening and even disappearance of the P wave, progressive widening of the QRS complex, prolongation of the PR interval, and ST depression.
Treatment of hyperkalemia:If hyperkalemia occurs in patients taking Amipramizide HCl, the drug should be discontinued immediately. If the serum potassium level exceeds 6.5 mEq per liter, active measures should be taken to reduce it. Such measures include the intravenous administration of sodium bicarbonate solution or oral or parenteral glucose with a rapid-acting insulin preparation. If needed, a cation exchange resin such as sodium polystyrene sulfonate may be given orally or by enema. Patients with persistent hyperkalemia may require dialysis.
Diabetes Mellitus
In diabetic patients, hyperkalemia has been reported with the use of all potassium-conserving diuretics, including Amipramizide HCl, even in patients without evidence of diabetic nephropathy. Therefore, Amipramizide HCl should be avoided, if possible, in diabetic patients and, if it is used, serum electrolytes and renal function must be monitored frequently.
Amipramizide HCl should be discontinued at least 3 days before glucose tolerance testing.
Metabolic or Respiratory Acidosis
Antikaliuretic therapy should be instituted only with caution in severely ill patients in whom respiratory or metabolic acidosis may occur, such as patients with cardiopulmonary disease or poorly controlled diabetes. If Amipramizide HCl is given to these patients, frequent monitoring of acid-base balance is necessary. Shifts in acid-base balance alter the ratio of extracellular/intracellular potassium, and the development of acidosis may be associated with rapid increases in serum potassium levels.
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