Azithromycin Linked to Increased Risk for Sudden Death in Heart Patients

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New York, NY: According to a new study about to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), some patients taking the antibiotic azithromycin may be at increased risk for sudden death. While the odds of death are reportedly small, the risk is significant and physicians are advised to consider prescribing a different antibiotic in patients with diabetes, or who have suffered heart failure or heart attack.

According to a report in the New York Times, azithromycin was found to cause abnormal heart rhythms in patients with heart disease, which could prove fatal. Two other antibiotics, namely erythromycin and clarithromycin, are known to increase the risk for sudden death in adults. Until this new study, azithromycin was believed to be safer.

The study analyzed medical records of roughly 540,000 Medicaid patients from 1992 to 2006 who lived in Tennessee and were aged between 30 and 74. While the investigators found few sudden deaths, when they looked at sudden death rates per million courses of treatment, they found azithromycin was associated with a higher death rate than other antibiotics: with 64.6 deaths per million courses, as opposed to 21.8 for amoxicillin and 24 when there was no treatment.

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Last updated on May-29-12

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