ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a pandemic that has raised serious public health concerns. Medical health practitioners are employing various treatment strategies that would have a potential to be effective in treating the COVID-19. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been revealed to have significant effect on the replication of SARS-CoV-2 virus in vitro. It has the antiviral characteristics in vitro that support the fact that this drug has efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19. Based on this hypothesis, it is appropriate to use this drug in clinical trials settings of preventing the COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to investigate the degree of corrected QT (QTc) and QT/QTc ratio interval prolongation in patients with COVID-19 in association with their use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). RESULTS: In this Randomized controlled trial (RCT) study, we have found that the patients who received hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for the treatment of COVID-19 were found to have no significant increase in final/last QT/QTc ratio (p=0.680) comparing to initial QT/QTc ratio. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: In this study, patients who received HCQ for the treatment of COVID-19 were not found to be at high risk of QTc prolongation. Clinicians should carefully determine the risk and benefits of using HCQ with close monitoring of QTc changes. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; hydroxychloroquine, efficacy, adverse effects
Publication date: 01/03/21

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2021/March/MS_IJBPAS_2021_5424.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2021/10.3.5424