The potential COVID-19 drug azithromycin may increase the risk of heart disease

debate over whether hydroxychloroquine should be taken to reduce duration and affect COVID-19 has revolved around the drug's reputation for causing heart events such as abnormal heart rhythms or throbbing and cardiac arrest. As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has revoked the emergency use of the drug for the treatment of COVID-19.Another drug, azithromycin, a commonly used antibiotic, is also being studied as a potential treatment for COVID-19. The relationship between azithromycin and heart events has also been debated. In 2012, the FDA issued a warning about azithromycin, saying it was linked to heart events, but subsequent studies produced different results.Now, researchers from the University of Chicago in Illinois have found that azithromycin itself is not associated with an increase in heart events. However, heart events increase if the drug is taken in with some other drug that affects the electrical function of the heart."Our findings should lead researchers and clinicians to view azithromycin as a potential treatment for COVID-19 stoppages, and we found that taking these drugs together with drugs that affect electrical impulses in the heart can increase heart events by 40 percent, including fainting, cardiac arrest, and even cardiac arrest," said Haridarshan Patel, a researcher in the Department of Pharmacology, Results and Policy at the UIC School of Pharmacy. Their
published in JAMA, an open-site journal.Drugs that affect electrical impulses in the heart, especially the interval between electrical rhythms, are called QT intervals, and are called drugs that extend QT. These drugs include blood pressure drugs (e.g. ACE inhibitors and β order blockers), certain antidepressants, antimalarial drugs (e.g. hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine), opioids and even muscle relaxants."Because the use of extended QT drugs is so widespread, our findings suggest that doctors who prescribe azithromycin should ensure that patients do not take extended QT medications, " Patel said. Inprevious study, Patel and colleagues found that every five people who prescribed azithromycin also took an extended QT drug.Previous studies of azithromycin and heart events examined specific populations, which tend to be older and have more health problems, including Medicaid patients and veterans. But in the study, Patel and colleagues used a large database containing medical data on millions of patients in the United States with an average age of 36.The risk of heart events was assessed with azithromycin, another antibiotic that has never been associated with heart events and has no effect on QT intervals. The researchers looked at data on more than 4 million patients who participated in private health insurance plans who were admitted to or attended emergency departments for heart disease between 2009 and 2015 and started taking amosicillin or azithromycin within five days of their visit. There are about 2 million episodes in each group. Heart events include roomic arrhythmics, fainting, cardiac and cardiac arrest, and death."Drugs usually extend QT intervals, but they don't necessarily cause heart events to resolve themselves over time, and we looked at cases that led to emergency visits or hospitalizations," Patel said.researchers found that azithromycin was less likely to cause heart events than amexicillin, and that these events were actually rare or rare in both groups, with fainting and palpitations the most common heart events. However, in patients who took both extended QT and azithromycin, the risk of heart events was 40 percent higher than in the Amoselin group."Because prescriptions for extended QT drugs and azithromycin are very common, combined use is still rare, but combined use can lead to a high risk of heart events, and studies on the use of azithromycin to treat COVID-19 or other diseases should seriously consider using it in patients who are also taking extended QT medications," Patel said. Costudy include Gregory Calip, Robert DiDomenico, Glen Schumock and Todd Lee of the UIC School of Pharmacy, and Katie Suda of the University of Pittsburgh. （cyy123.com）