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Mike Mitka

JAMA. 1999;282:1409-1410.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The similarity in the nonproprietary names of two cardiac drugs has resulted in 11 medication errors, including one death, and is compelling authorities to propose name changes.

Illustration by Jill Ghormley

The revisions are being suggested for amrinone and amiodarone. Amrinone is a positive inotropic agent with vasodilator activity, and amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic agent. The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and the United States Adopted Names Council, which assign generic names to drugs, are proposing changing amrinone to inamrinone—using the "in" prefix that appears in the innovator's brand name Inocor, and changing amiodarone to camiodarone—using the "c" prefix appearing in the innovator's brand name Cordarone.

The USP said it hoped the name changes incorporating the letter of each innovator's proprietary name will help health care providers associate the new nomenclature with each drug along with achieving alphabetic separation and creating different verbalization. Amrinone was given its USAN (United . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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