This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Study: Routine potassium monitoring unnecessary for young women taking spironolactone for acne

A low rate of hyperkalemia was identified in young women taking spironolactone to treat acne, which was comparable to a baseline rate of hyperkalemia in the overall population, suggesting routine potassium monitoring for the patients is unnecessary, according to recently published study results.

Researchers retrospectively studied data from a clinical data repository for 974 healthy young women who underwent treatment spironolactone for acne from Dec. 1, 2000, through March 31, 2014. Rates of hyperkalemia were analyzed in the spironolactone cohort, which included 676 patients taking spironolactone for primary diagnosis of acne and 298 patients taking spironolactone for an endocrine disorder with acne as a secondary feature.

The researchers also created a profile for the baseline rate of hyperkalemia in the patient population by analyzing 1,165 healthy young women taking and not taking spironolactone.

There were 1,802 measurements obtained from the women receiving spironolactone treatment, with 13 abnormal serum potassium measurements were found, which indicated a hyperkalemia rate of 0.72%. A baseline rate for the entire population was determined to be 0.76%. Successive testing within 1 to 3 weeks in six of the 13 patients determined normal values, which suggested that the original measurements could have been erroneous, according to the researchers. The other seven patients did not undergo successive testing. – by Bruce Thiel

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.