Heart rhythm in COVID-19 patients receiving short term treatment with hydroxychloroquine

Press Release:

Sophia Antipolis, 25 September 2020: Short-term hydroxychloroquine treatment is not associated with lethal heart rhythms in patients with COVID-19 who are risk assessed prior to receiving the drug. That’s the finding of research published today in EP Europace, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1

“This was the largest study to assess the risk of dangerous heart rhythms (arrhythmias) in COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine,” said study author Dr. Alessio Gasperetti of Monzino Cardiology Centre, Milan, Italy and University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. “In our cohort, there was a low rate of arrhythmias and none were associated with hydroxychloroquine.”

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Hydroxychloroquine linked to increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias

Press Release:

Boston, Mass. — Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a Public Health Concern of Global Interest on January 30, more than one million have tested positive for the illness in the United States, and more than 62,000 have died. With no FDA-approved treatments available to date, the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, has emerged as a potential therapy for the pneumonia associated with COVID-19, with or without the antibiotic azithromycin.

In a brief report published today in JAMA Cardiology, a team of pharmacists and clinicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, found evidence suggesting that patients who received hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 were at increased risk of electrical changes to the heart and cardiac arrhythmias. The combination of hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin was linked to even greater changes compared to hydroxychloroquine alone.

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