DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300247

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAT DOOLEY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

FREE HEART TEST OFFERED TO WEIGHT-LOSS DRUG USERS

A local weight-loss center will offer free echocardiograms to about 250 people who used either of two diet drugs that were recently pulled from the market after being linked to heart-valve problems.

The test - a kind of picture of the working heart - is the best way to detect valve disease.

Chase Wellness Center, with offices in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, has received funding from a pharmaceutical company to schedule the tests beginning this week, said Dr. Lisa Harris. She is director of the center, which specializes in bariatrics, or the study of obesity.

The drugs, Redux (or dexfenfluramine) and Pondimin (fenfluramine), have been linked to heart-valve disease in as many as 100 people nationwide. Their manufacturer, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, voluntarily pulled the drugs from pharmacies Sept. 15, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Harris declined to name the pharmaceutical company but said it announced funding of the echocardiograms about a week before the FDA's action.

The company's plans were fueled partly by reports in July from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., that 24 patients showed signs of heart-valve disease after using ``fen-phen'' for about a year, Harris said.

Fen-phen, a combination of fenfluramine and phentermine, had become commonly prescribed for weight loss, although the Food and Drug Administration had not recommended them for use together.

Phentermine is still available by prescription and has not been associated with heart-valve disease.

Symptoms of the disease include fatigue, shortness of breath, reduced exercise tolerance, lightheadedness, swelling in the feet or ankles, blue lips or fingers and irregular heartbeat, Harris said.

Some patients, however, may have no symptoms. An echocardiogram is ``the only definitive diagnostic test to detect such problems,'' Harris said.

The test can cost anywhere from $500 to $800 and is generally not covered by insurance, unless a patient has symptoms, she said.

Many people have called the center to ask about potential problems with the drugs and how to be tested. ``We were getting calls from people we never treated,'' Harris said.

A little more than 200 of the center's 2,000 patients had been using fen-phen or Redux before the voluntary withdrawal. Nationwide, doctors wrote about 18 million prescriptions a month for the fen-phen drugs alone, the FDA reported.

People who want to schedule a free echocardiogram do not have to be patients of the center, but must be at least 18 and have used Redux or Pondimin within the last two months, Harris said. Anyone who has used both medications would not be eligible, under the pharmaceutical company's guidelines.

Most patients will receive same-day results.

Although the pharmaceutical company is expected to evaluate the results, Harris said she could not elaborate on how they might be used. MEMO: For more information or to schedule an echocardiogram, call

464-4876.

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