Lancet Rheumatol: Watch out! Using hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin at the same time may increase an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease!

September 22, 2020 // -- A recent study published in the international journal The Lancet Rheumatology entitled "Rheumatology Risk of Hydroxychloroquine alone and in with azithromycin in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a national, retrospective study" by scientists from Oxford University and other institutions found that the simultaneous use of hydrochloroquine and azithromycin increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. In the
article, the researchers said that in the largest ever safety study comparing hydroxychloroquine treatment with hydroxychloroquine in patients treating rheumatoid arthritis, they found that the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was directly related to a significant increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease, including mortality, and that hydroxychloroquine is commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, a commonly used antibiotic used to treat infections such as pneumonia, chest and sinusitis.
In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, short-term (30-day) treatment with hydroxychloroquine may not increase the risk of additional complications, but long-term treatment with hydroxychloroquine, a similar rheumatoid arthritis drug, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease-related mortality by 65%.
Photo Source: Based on a study of more than 320,000 patients who used combination therapy, the researchers found that even in the short term, a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin increased the risk of cardiovascular disease by more than twice (2.19 times), and that combination therapy increased the risk of angina/chest pain and heart failure by 15 to 20 percent.
In addition to being used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, hydroxychloroquine is also used to treat malaria and lupus, as well as as as a potential drug to treat COVID-19 infections, said researcher Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, who said that in the absence of a large-scale study of overall safety, whether used alone or in combination with azithromycin, As a potential COVID-19 therapy, which has received intense and widespread attention from scientists, researchers have now obtained more data on the drug, noting that its short-term use does not cause worrying side effects, but that when used in combination with azithromycin, it may trigger heart failure and death from cardiovascular disease, so researchers are calling on patients to use both drugs with caution. In the
article, the researchers analyzed 950,000 users of hydroxychloroquine across 14 different databases, including six countries, including Germany and Japan, by collated data such as participants' electronic health records over the past 20 years, and said: 'We are concerned about patients in the general population, which is why data from so many countries are so important, although later researchers need to conduct more in-depth studies around the world to confirm the findings.'
Now that researchers have standardized data on nearly 1 million patients using hydroxychloroquine, this may provide some basis for confirming the findings, although researchers are pleased to see that the results are expected to help produce more positive clinical data as treatments continue to be evaluated.
() References: Jennifer C E Lane, James Weaver, Kristin Kostka, et al. Risk of hydroxychloroquine alone and in group with azithromycin in the treatment of the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a multiple, retrospective study, The Lancet Rheumatology, August 21, 2020, doi:10.1016/S2665-9913 (20) 30276-9 (2) Using hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin together with a university of Oxford.