The Cardiac Risk of Chloroquine in Unapproved Indications
Retrieved on:
Friday, March 27, 2020
Recently, the unapproved use of the antimalarial drug, chloroquine, has been touted as a treatment for COVID-19 with some reported deaths with its use in afflicted patients.
Key Points:
- Recently, the unapproved use of the antimalarial drug, chloroquine, has been touted as a treatment for COVID-19 with some reported deaths with its use in afflicted patients.
- Because the QT interval is influenced by heart rate, it is most often given as the corrected QT interval or QTc.
- Even therapeutic doses of chloroquine in healthy patients are associated with prolongation of QTc1, although this is generally well tolerated.
- This is why chloroquine has specific warnings in its labeling to inform of the potential danger in patients with underlying risk factors (cardiac disease, hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, bradycardia)3.