CardioExchange Archive

June 9th, 2014

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: June 9th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include the CORONARY trial, the association of azithromycin with mortality and CV events among older patients hospitalized with pneumonia, and more.

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May 2nd, 2013

Danish Study Finds No Increased CV Risk with Azithromycin in General Population

Larry Husten, PHD

A large observational study found no increased risk for cardiovascular events associated with azithromycin (Zithromax, Pfizer) in a general population of young and middle-age adults. In a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Danish investigators report the results of a large national observational study comparing people who took azithromycin with matched controls […]

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March 15th, 2013

Azithro a No Go?

Richard Joseph Kovacs, MD

When I am faced with a patient who needs an antibiotic, and there is an alternative antibiotic with similar efficacy and lower QT risk, I will choose the antibiotic with lower QT risk, and I’m especially careful with patients with certain characteristics that put them at increased risk.

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March 12th, 2013

Azithromycin: FDA Issues Cardiac Warning

The antibiotic azithromycin (Zithromax and Zmax) can cause QT interval prolongation and torsades de pointes, the FDA warned on Tuesday. The agency says that healthcare providers should consider risk for fatal heart rhythms when treating patients already at high cardiovascular risk, including people with known prolongation of the QT interval, torsades de pointes, congenital long QT […]

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May 23rd, 2012

Panel: Azithromycin and Cardiovascular Risk

Paul Sax, MD, Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS and Jeffrey Lance Anderson, MD

Three experts offer perspective on a large database study showing an association between azitrhromycin use and increased risk for cardiovascular death.

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May 17th, 2012

Azithromycin Associated with Cardiovascular Death

Physician's First Watch, CardioExchange Staff

The antibiotic azithromycin — which may have proarrhythmic properties — is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular death, according to a retrospective cohort study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, in a Medicaid population, included nearly 350,000 azithromycin prescriptions, 1.4 million control periods without antibiotic prescriptions, and 1.8 million prescriptions for other antibiotics, […]

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