[Importance of digitalemia for a correct therapeutic attitude using cardioactive glycosides]

Recent advances in the quantitation of plasma or serum levels of cardiac glycosides promise to add a new dimension to pharmacologic studies and to the evaluation of clinical problems involving these drugs. A rapid radioimmunoassay technique has been described for the determination of serum digoxin and beta-metyldigoxin concentration in the range encountered clinically. Patients judged clinically to show digitals toxicity in general had higher levels. A relable estimate of serum digoxin and beta-metyldigoxin concentration, considered in the clinical context, has been found to be useful in arriving at acute management decisions.