A recent observational study has prompted the FDA to strengthen the ‘Warnings and Precautions’ section of macrolide drug labels. The current use of macrolides accounted for an additional 118 ventricular tachyarrhythmias or related sudden cardiac deaths per million treatment courses. Macrolides are commonly used for bacterial infections like pneumonia, bronchitis, and some sexually transmitted diseases.
Although regarded safe in adverse effects, recently they have shown arrhythmia-related cardiac effects, including QT interval prolongation, torsades de pointes (TdP), ventricular tachycardia, and sudden cardiac death (SCD). The rank order of QT prolongation caused by macrolides in humans is erythromycin > clarithromycin > roxithromycin > azithromycin. Mechanism of few macrolides for cardiovascular risk: Macrolides seem to affect the potassium channel of myocytes at high concentration.…
