ArticleTherapeutic advances in infectious disease2013
Azithromycin, cardiovascular risks, QTc interval prolongation, torsade de pointes, and regulatory issues: A narrative review based on the study of case reports.
Article in Therapeutic advances in infectious disease, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- An umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses evaluating positive and negative outcomes of Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine therapy.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Update I. A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19.Journal of critical care · 2020Pooled it
- Guidelines for the management of paediatric cholera infection: a systematic review of the evidence.Paediatrics and international child health · 2018Pooled it
- Guidelines for the treatment of dysentery (shigellosis): a systematic review of the evidence.Paediatrics and international child health · 2018Pooled it
- Azithromycin in Dentistry: From Systemic Antibiotic to a Candidate for Local Therapeutic Delivery.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- Ureaplasma positivity and respiratory outcomes in very low birth weight infants: a cohort study with a nested double-blind randomized pilot trial of azithromycin.BMC pediatrics · 2026Observational
- Comparing neuroprotective drug efficacy in rodent neonatal brain injury models.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Postnatal Azithromycin Is Neuroprotective and Anti-Inflammatory in a Piglet Model of Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy.Stroke · 2026Article
- Comparing Neuroprotective Drug Efficacy in Rodent Neonatal Brain Injury Models.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Azithromycin Exposure in a 10-Day Window of Myocardial Infarction and Short- and Long-Term Outcomes.JACC. Advances · 2024Article
- Endocarditis in Adult Congenital Heart Disease Patients: Prevention, Recognition, and Management.Current cardiology reports · 2024Review
- COVID-19 and cardiovascular complications: updates of emergency medicine.Emergency and critical care medicine · 2023Article
- Antibiotic Combination Therapy for Severe Scrub Typhus: Is It Necessary?Infection & chemotherapy · 2023Review
- Antimicrobial Prophylaxis in Dentistry: Survey among Dental Surgeons in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the Metropolitan Region.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2023Article
- Cardiovascular Safety of Hydroxychloroquine-Azithromycin in 424 COVID-19 Patients.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Cardiac Complications of Human Babesiosis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2023Article
- The impact of SARS-CoV-2 treatment on the cardiovascular system: an updated review.Inflammopharmacology · 2022Review
- Serious Cardiovascular Adverse Events Associated with Hydroxychloroquine/Chloroquine Alone or with Azithromycin in Patients with COVID-19: A Pharmacovigilance Analysis of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS).Drugs - real world outcomes · 2022Article
- Appropriate prescribing of azithromycin for community-acquired pneumonia.Internal medicine journal · 2022Article
- Azithromycin: An Underappreciated Quinolone-Sparing Oral Treatment forAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Over the past year, three articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine describing conflicting findings about azithromycin and cardiac safety, particular azithromycin-induced QTc interval prolongation and torsade de pointes. The FDA wants healthcare providers to consider azithromycin-induced fatal cardiac arrhythmias for patients already at risk for cardiac death and other potentially arrhythmogenic cardiovascular conditions. In a systematic review of case reports we sought to determine factors that link to azithromycin-induced/associated QTc interval prolongation and torsade de pointes. We found 12 cases: seven female and five male. Of the nine adults with reported azithromycin doses, concurrent QTc interval measurement, and without congenital long QT syndrome, we found no significant relationship between dose and QTc interval duration. Additional risk factors were female sex, older age, heart disease, QTc interval prolonging drugs and metabolic inhibitors, hypokalemia, and bradycardia. All 12 subjects had at least two additional risk factors. Elderly women with heart disease appear to be at particularly risk for drug-related QTc interval prolongation and torsade de pointes.
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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.