Methyldigoxin is an active ingredient that has been used for a long time to treat heart failure and atrial fibrillation, but its prescription rate among physicians has dropped recently due to the possibility of prescribing modern and safer active ingredients. It belongs to the active ingredients with a narrow therapeutic window, requiring, in principle, a continual adjustment of their dosage regimen to the concentration of the active ingredient in the serum. It is therefore important that in patients requiring methyldigoxin therapy the therapeutic range is well defined and that the (methyl)digoxin concentration monitoring is correct to ensure adequate efficiency and safety of the therapy. Kinetidex®, a pharmacokinetic computer program, could be very helpful to the doctors and pharmacists at the University Medical Centre Maribor, as it is in gentamicin and vancomycin therapy, to optimise the dosage regimen of the active ingredients with a narrow therapeutic window. The purpose of retrospective study was to assess the applicability of Kinetidex® in forecasting (methyl)digoxin serum concentration levels. The purpose of prospective study on the other hand was to introduce the methyldigoxin dosage and serum (methyl)digoxin concentration monitoring instructions into everyday clinical practice following a review of the current literature. Furthermore, was the aim of prospective study to determine an optimal dosage regimen through a Kinetidex® simulation in patients with inadequate serum (methyl)digoxin levels. The retrospective study included 65 out of 206 patients treated for atrial fibrillation and undulation and/or congestive heart failure between 1 January and 31 March 2013 at the Department of Cardiology and Angiology of the University Medical Centre Maribor by reviewing a list of the patients receiving methyldigoxin therapy prior to and during the hospital treatment. And the prospective study included 18 patients receiving methyldigoxin therapy prior to and during the hospital treatment between 1 June and 31 July at the Department of Cardiology and Angiology of the University Medical Centre Maribor. The results of this study suggest that in forecasting serum (methyl)digoxin concentrations Kinetidex® is applicable to the extent that it is possible to define an optimal dosage regimen for a selected patient by carrying out a simulation. Likewise, a simulation may be helpful to doctors and a pharmacists in deciding to take a serum sample, since the graph clearly shows when the stationary state of a selected patient is reached.
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