Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24707986›Full record

ReviewAmerican journal of respiratory and critical care medicine2014

Macrolide antibiotics and the risk of cardiac arrhythmias.

Richard K Albert, Joseph L Schuller, COPD Clinical Research Network

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
61citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
10.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

61 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 160 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Trial
  8. Macrolide-resistantJournal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2026
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Review
  12. Review
  13. Review
  14. Review
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Genetic Variations and Antibiotic-Related Adverse Events.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024
    Review
  19. Review
  20. Emerging Anti-Inflammatory COPD Treatments: Potential Cardiovascular Impacts.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2024
    Review

1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Richard K Albert1 Denver Health, Denver, Colorado; and.
Joseph L Schuller
COPD Clinical Research Network
Denver Health Medical Center · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Randomized, controlled trials have demonstrated that chronic therapy with macrolide antibiotics reduces the morbidity of patients with cystic fibrosis, non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and nontuberculous mycobacterial infections. Lower levels of evidence indicate that chronic macrolides are also effective in treating patients with panbronchiolitis, bronchiolitis obliterans, and rejection after lung transplant. Macrolides are known to cause torsade des pointes and other ventricular arrhythmias, and a recent observational study prompted the FDA to strengthen the Warnings and Precautions section of azithromycin drug labels. This summary describes the electrophysiological effects of macrolides, reviews literature indicating that the large majority of subjects experiencing cardiac arrhythmias from macrolides have coexisting risk factors and that the incidence of arrhythmias in absence of coexisting risk factors is very low, examines recently published studies describing the relative risk of arrhythmias from macrolides, and concludes that this risk has been overestimated and suggests an approach to patient evaluation that should reduce the relative risk and the incidence of arrhythmias to the point that chronic macrolides can be used safely in the majority of subjects for whom they are recommended.

Indexed as

Anti-Bacterial AgentsArrhythmias, CardiacAzithromycinCystic FibrosisHeart Conduction SystemHumansMacrolidesPulmonary Disease, Chronic ObstructiveRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicRisk FactorsAnti-Bacterial AgentsAzithromycinMacrolides

Identifiers

PMID24707986
PMCPMC4061901
OpenAlexW2134495308

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.