Cardiovascular events after clarithromycin use in lower respiratory tract infections: analysis of two prospective cohort studies

Source: BMJ Area: News There have been concerns about the possibility of harmful effects of widespread macrolide use on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Whilst clarithromycin is the macrolide that is used most often in the UK, the authors report that no studies have investigated the long term effect of clarithromycin on cardiovascular events and mortality in patients after acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or community acquired pneumonia (CAP).  They conducted a secondary analysis of two large prospective cohort studies to investigate the association in these patient groups. These were a multicentre observational study of patients admitted to one of 12 hospitals in the UK with exacerbations of COPD (between 2009 and 2011; n = 1343) and the Edinburgh pneumonia study cohort (2005-2009; n = 1631).   The main outcome measures were hazard ratios measuring the association between clarithromycin use and the first hospital admission due to a cardiovascular ...
Source: NeLM - Cardiovascular Medicine - Category: Cardiology Source Type: news