Mitigating arrhythmia risk in Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin treated COVID-19 patients using arrhythmia risk management plan /

Kazimieras Maneikis; Ugnė Ringelevičiūtė; Justinas Bacevičius; Eglė Dieninytė-Misiūnė; Emilija Burokaitė; Gintarė Kazbaraitė; Monika Janušaitė; Austėja Dapkevičiūtė; Andrius Žučenka; Valdas Pečeliūnas; Lina Kryžauskaitė; Vytautas Kasiulevičius; Donata Ringaitienė; Birutė Zablockienė; Tadas Žvirblis; Germanas Marinskis; Ligita Jančorienė; Laimonas Griškevičius

doi:10.1016/j.ijcha.2020.100685

Title	Mitigating arrhythmia risk in Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin treated COVID-19 patients using arrhythmia risk management plan /
Authors	Maneikis, Kazimieras ; Ringelevičiūtė, Ugnė ; Bacevičius, Justinas ; Dieninytė-Misiūnė, Eglė ; Burokaitė, Emilija ; Kazbaraitė, Gintarė ; Janušaitė, Monika ; Dapkevičiūtė, Austėja ; Žučenka, Andrius ; Pečeliūnas, Valdas ; Kryžauskaitė, Lina ; Kasiulevičius, Vytautas ; Ringaitienė, Donata ; Zablockienė, Birutė ; Žvirblis, Tadas ; Marinskis, Germanas ; Jančorienė, Ligita ; Griškevičius, Laimonas
DOI	10.1016/j.ijcha.2020.100685
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Is Part of	International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature.. East Park Shannon : Elsevier. 2021, vol. 32, art. no. 100685, p. [1-7].. eISSN 2352-9067
Keywords [eng]	Azithromycin ; COVID-19 ; Hydroxychloroquine ; QT interval
Abstract [eng]	Aims: To assess cardiac safety in COVID-19 patients treated with the combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin using arrhythmia risk management plan. Methods and results: We retrospectively examined arrhythmia safety of treatment with Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin in the setting of pre-defined arrhythmia risk management plan. The data was analyzed using R statistical package version 4.0.0. A two-tailed p-value<0.05 was considered significant. 81 patients were included from March 23rd to May 10th 2020. The median age was 59 years, 58.0% were female. The majority of the study population (82.7%) had comorbidities, 98.8% had radiological signs of pneumonia. Fourteen patients (17.3%) experienced QTc ≥ 480 ms and 16 patients (19.8%) had an increase of QTc ≥ 60 ms. Seven patients (8.6%) had QTc prolongation of ≥ 500 ms. The treatment was discontinued in 4 patients (4.9%). None of the patients developed ventricular tachycardia. The risk factors significantly associated with QTc ≥ 500 ms were hypokalemia (p = 0.032) and use of diuretics during the treatment (p = 0.020). Three patients (3.7%) died, the cause of death was bacterial superinfection with septic shock in two patients, and disseminated intravascular coagulation with multiple organ failure in one patient. None of these deaths were associated with cardiac arrhythmias. Conclusion: We recorded a low incidence of QTc prolongation ≥ 500 ms and no ventricular tachycardia events in COVID-19 patients treated with Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin using cardiac arrhythmia risk management plan.
Published	East Park Shannon : Elsevier
Type	Journal article
Language	English
Publication date	2021
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„Mitigating arrhythmia risk in Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin treated COVID-19 patients using arrhythmia risk management plan /“