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Original Research |
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (R.R.C., S.L.B., G.E.D., J.B.B., J.T.D.), Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (R.R.C., G.R.T.), Boston, Massachusetts
Address reprint requests to: R. Rebecca Couris, Ph.D., R.Ph., Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, 179 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: rcouris{at}mcp.edu
| ABSTRACT |
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Methods: The K-Card was designed to include a checklist of selected common foods and beverages providing
5 µg vitamin K per serving in American diets and items with lower vitamin K content typically consumed in quantities which contribute significantly to total vitamin K intake. The K-Card was validated against records of weighed food intake from thirty-six healthy volunteers, 20 to 40 and 60 to 80 years of age, whose phylloquinone intakes and plasma concentrations had been previously measured by the Metabolic Research Unit, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA USA. Future use of the K-Card by patients was simulated by a single investigator using 108 one-day weighed food records to estimate phylloquinone intakes. Dietary phylloquinone calculated from the K-Card was compared to the values of phylloquinone intake from the diet records collected on the same days, and to fasting plasma phylloquinone concentrations obtained from the same individuals on the following day.
Results: The mean dietary phylloquinone intake (± SEM) was 138.8 ± 15.7 µg for the K-Cards compared to 136.0 ± 15.8 µg for the diet records (p = 0.067). Bland-Altman limits of agreement between quantities of dietary phylloquinone calculated from the K-Card and values obtained from the weighed food records were ± 38 µg.
Conclusion: In this simulation, the K-Card provided an accurate estimate of dietary phylloquinone intake and therefore deserves further testing for use by patients receiving coumarin-based anticoagulant therapy to determine whether variability in dietary patterns contributes to disruptions in anticoagulant drug efficacy and safety.
Key words: vitamin K, diet records, assessment tools, anticoagulation therapy
| INTRODUCTION |
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Warfarins anticoagulant effects can be disrupted by variations in dietary phylloquinone (vitamin K1) intake [11,12] that may result in serious, life-threatening consequences [1318]. Therefore, clinicians often recommend that patients who are receiving warfarin therapy limit their daily variations in vitamin K consumption to no more than 250 to 500 µg from baseline intakes [16, 19]. When the intake of vitamin K remains constant, regardless of its absolute dietary level, no adverse drug-nutrient interaction that affects anticoagulant outcomes is evident [20]. However, when variations in vitamin K intake exceed these levels, disruptions can occur in the new homeostatic balance that has been achieved with anticoagulant drugs. Among patients who are anticoagulated with a constant dose of warfarin, increases in phylloquinone intake have been associated with abnormal and excessive blood clotting or warfarin-resistant anticoagulation, necessitating increases in warfarin dose [1316]. For example, warfarin resistance has been documented among patients consuming large amounts of broccoli, which contains 113 µg phylloquinone per 100 g serving [13]. Walker [14] found that patients taking anticoagulants on weight reduction diets who consumed large amounts of green leafy vegetables, which are typically rich in phylloquinone, had a greater incidence of myocardial infarctions associated with warfarin resistance than did their peers with lower intakes.
Although 500 µg of phylloquinone has been demonstrated to overcome the disruption of vitamin K metabolism associated with warfarin [21], enteral products containing as little as 25 to 115 µg of phylloquinone per 100 mL have also been reported to create a dietary-induced warfarin resistance [22,23]. Consistent with these observations, Oversen et al. [15] and Pedersen et al. [16] noted that patients taking anticoagulants who consumed vegetables that were poor sources of phylloquinone rarely reported adverse reactions.
In contrast, decreases in phylloquinone intake among patients taking anticoagulants can result in abnormal bleeding or warfarin-potentiated anticoagulation [17, 18]. Chow et al. [18] reported hemorrhagic complications in two patients on long-term anticoagulant therapy due to dietary modifications that drastically lowered their intakes of phylloquinone. Furthermore, fluctuations in phylloquinone intake may prolong the interval necessary to reach a stable dosing regimen with anticoagulant therapy, a circumstance which may result in adverse hemorrhagic and thrombotic events. Therefore, the National Stroke Association and pharmaceutical manufacturers of anticoagulants recommend that dietary intakes of phylloquinone remain constant in patients receiving oral anticoagulant therapy [24, 25]. Constant dietary intakes of phylloquinone are especially important for patients receiving acenocoumarol, a drug that has an even shorter half-life than warfarin and is potentially affected even more dramatically by dietary phylloquinone fluctuations. A consistent phylloquinone intake that meets the current Recommended Dietary Allowance of 65 to 80 µg/day would therefore be prudent patient advice [26, 27].
The recent availability of food composition data for vitamin K makes it possible to identify foods that may potentially interfere with the efficacy of warfarin anticoagulant therapy. However, an efficient and inexpensive method for measuring dietary phylloquinone intake and variability in a clinical setting has not been available. Thus, we developed a short, practical dietary self-monitoring tool, called the K-Card. The K-Card was then validated to determine deviations from a standard to quantitatively assess day-to-day and week-to-week variability in dietary phylloquinone intake which could be used by patients receiving coumarin-based anticoagulant therapy.
| METHODS |
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5 µg vitamin K per serving [2830]. In addition, lower phylloquinone content foods eaten frequently or in quantities that contribute significantly to vitamin K intake were also included. Common supplements and products providing vitamin K were also incorporated into the K-Card. Fifty-five items are listed on one double-sided page of thick stock paper and categorized by color coding as follows: vegetables (green), meat/poultry/fish (yellow), mixed dishes (blue), fats/oils/salad dressings (yellow), snacks (green), desserts (purple), beverages (pink), and dietary supplements (lavender). Each side of the K-Card is presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Foods and food groups that appear on the K-Card include those from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Total Diet Study which provides the phylloquinone content of commonly consumed foods and beverages in the American diet [29]. These sources were supplemented by provisional tables listing the phylloquinone content of common foods and beverages and additional items from the vitamin K nutrient database at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University [2830].
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Sampling of Diet Records for K-Card Validation
In this study, one of us (R.R.C.) recorded lists of foods onto the K-Card using the diet records from the previous metabolic balance study [30]. The investigator was blinded to all identifying information for each record and also to calculation of dietary phylloquinone intake. The dietary record selected for this simulation study was taken from each of the three sets of four consecutive day-weighed diet records and corresponded to the day prior to the 8:00 am fasting blood sample (12 to 14 hours postprandial) with plasma phylloquinone concentrations determined by HPLC according to Booth et al. [30]. A total of 108 one-day weighed diet records were sampled, representing three reporting periods for each of the 36 volunteers. Validation of the K-Card was accomplished by comparing phylloquinone intakes from the K-Cards to the completed diet records of the previous study [30]. Recorded food intakes on the K-Card were translated into quantities (µg) of phylloquinone per serving and used to determine amounts of phylloquinone consumed. In subsequent analyses these amounts were compared to those obtained from calculation of phylloquinone intakes assessed from the previous studys diet records on the same days using the Tufts University vitamin K database.
Statistical Analysis
Pearson correlation coefficients were used to compare the quantity of dietary phylloquinone from the K-Card against that from weighed food records obtained from Booth et al. [30]. Because strong correlations between two assessment methods do not account for bias between the two instruments and do not necessarily indicate agreement, limits of agreement between the quantity of dietary phylloquinone calculated from the K-Card and that obtained from the diet records were derived according to the method of Bland and Altman [31]. Scatterplots were displayed to compare plasma phylloquinone concentrations (nmol/L) against vitamin K intake (µg) from both the K-Card and the weighed diet records for each visit. A logarithmic transformation of the data was used because this data were skewed to the right. The quantity of vitamin K intake (µg) from the K-Card and the diet records was also compared. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare mean differences between intake as measured by diet records and K-Cards.
| RESULTS |
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50 µg of dietary phylloquinone was defined as an acceptable limit of variation between the two assessment methods. This value represents a more stringent criterion for variability compared to the amounts documented in clinical studies that indicate variations of 250 µg/day in dietary phylloquinone have a significant effect on warfarin anticoagulant therapy [16, 19]. A plot of the differences in dietary phylloquinone intake between the two assessment tools against their mean for each individual is presented for all three visits (Fig. 2).
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| DISCUSSION |
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5 µg vitamin K per serving. Furthermore, food items with lower phylloquinone content but that were typically consumed in quantities which contribute significantly to total phylloquinone intake and dietary supplements containing vitamin K were also included in the K-Card. The K-Card is an easy-to-use self-assessment tool that provides an accurate estimate of dietary phylloquinone intake in this simulation exercise. Further assessment will be conducted to determine its accuracy when used by actual patients. The K-Card food checklist permits patients to record their daily diet in fewer than 15 minutes. Quick and simple tabulations of items contributing to phylloquinone intake from the K-Card can be performed by either the patient or trained personnel. In contrast, completion of multiple diet records is time-consuming for the patients and requires trained personnel to code and subsequently analyze record entries. The K-Card has been tested in a prospective clinical trial to determine the effect of phylloquinone intake on the stability of warfarin therapy (unpublished data).
Variability in phylloquinone intake may underlie the discrepancies noted in patients with fluctuating responses to coumarin-based anticoagulant therapy from prolonged bleeding time to clotting. Dietary intakes of phylloquinone have greater within-to-between person variability than other fat-soluble vitamins, which may have detrimental effects on the stability of oral anticoagulant therapy [30]. Thus, when further validated, the K-Card could prove useful in monitoring serial daily phylloquinone intakes to establish day-to-day and week-to-week variability. Measuring variability in phylloquinone intake with a short and easy-to-use instrument like the K-Card may be beneficial in education programs for patients receiving coumarin-based anticoagulant therapy. The K-Card could also provide primary healthcare providers with information that could impact on patient counseling and education to encourage compliance to a stable phylloquinone intake among patients receiving anticoagulant therapy.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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Note: The K-Card, vitamin K intake assessment card, is trademarked and copyrighted by Tufts University. Any use or other infringement is prohibited. Contact the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance at the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy for information.
Received August 4, 1999. Accepted August 31, 2000.
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