Since 1991, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been a staple for the treatment of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus; it has been shown to improve survival, reduce cardiovascular risk, thrombosis and renal damage, delay or prevent lupus cerebritis and more. However, HCQ can potentially bind in the retinal pigment epithelium and cause degeneration of photoreceptors, leading to…
ACR CONVERGENCE 2020—Held Nov. 5–9, the ACR’s first fully virtual annual meeting provided participants with a vast repository of new research related to rheumatoid arthritis (RA). To help you sort through the noise, Elizabeth (Blair) Solow, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatic Diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, offered …
ACR Convergence 2020—At two plenary sessions, speakers highlighted key findings, including results on the QTc interval in patients on hydroxychloroquine, and data from a study on denosumab vs. alendronate for glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. The QTc Interval & Hydroxychloroquine The safety profile and optimal dosing of hydroxychloroquine has been a topic for decades because it is known…
The conversation with Stephen Hahn, MD, addressed challenges associated with hydroxychloroquine access during the COVID-19 public health emergency and handling patient concerns about potential cardiac side effects.
NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters)—Three of the authors of an influential article that found hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients retracted the study, citing concerns about the quality of the data behind it. The anti-malarial drug has been controversial in part due to support from U.S. President Donald Trump, as well…
CHICAGO (Reuters)—Cancer patients with COVID-19 who were treated with a drug combination promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump to counter the coronavirus were three times more likely to die within 30 days than those who got either drug alone, U.S. researchers reported on May 28. The preliminary results suggest doctors may want to refrain from…
ZURICH (Reuters)—The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday promised a swift review of data on hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), probably by mid-June, after safety concerns prompted the group to suspend the malaria drug’s use in a trial on COVID-19 patients. U.S. President Donald Trump and others have pushed HCQ as a possible coronavirus treatment, but the WHO…
(Reuters)—Malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which U.S. President Donald Trump says he has been taking, is tied to increased risk of death in COVID-19 patients, according to a study published in The Lancet.1 The registry analysis, which included data from 671 hospitals in six continents and over 96,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, showed that people treated…
LONDON (Reuters)—On May 21, British healthcare workers began taking part in a University of Oxford-led international trial of two anti-malarial drugs to see if they can prevent COVID-19, including one U.S. President Donald Trump says he has been taking. The COPCOV study will involve more than 40,000 frontline healthcare workers from Europe, Africa, Asia and…
(Reuters)—The malaria treatment repeatedly championed by U.S. President Donald Trump as a game changer in the fight against the novel coronavirus has again failed to show a benefit in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a recent study. Although the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine had certain limitations, doctors report that…