Lack of efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia: A retrospective study
Anis Saib, Walid Amara, Pascal Wang, Simon Cattan, Azeddine Dellal, Kais Regaieg, Stephane Nahon, Olivier Nallet, Lee S Nguyen
PLOS ONE, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0252388
Background Hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin (HCQ/AZI) has initially been used against coronavirus disease-2019 . In this retrospective study, we assessed the clinical effects of HCQ/AZI, with a 28-days follow-up.
Methods In a registry-study which included patients hospitalized for COVID-19 between March 15 and April 2, 2020, we compared patients who received HCQ/AZI to those who did not, regarding a composite outcome of mortality and mechanical ventilation with a 28-days follow-up. QT was monitored for patients treated with HCQ/AZI. Were excluded patients in intensive care units, palliative care and ventilated within 24 hours of admission. Three analyses were performed to adjust for selection bias: propensity score matching, multivariable survival, and inverse probability score weighting (IPSW) analyses.
Results Overall, 203 patients were included: 60 patients treated by HCQ/AZI and 143 control patients. During the 28-days follow-up, 32 (16.3%) patients presented the primary outcome and 23 (12.3%) patients died. Propensity-score matching identified 52 unique pairs of patients with similar characteristics. In the matched cohort (n = 104), HCQ/AZI was not associated with the primary composite outcome (log-rank p-value = 0.16). In the overall cohort (n = 203), survival and IPSW analyses also found no benefit from HCQ/AZI. In the HCQ/AZI group, 11 (18.3%) patients prolonged QT interval duration, requiring treatment cessation.
Supporting information
S1 File. (XLSX)
Author Contributions Conceptualization: Anis Saib, Lee S. Nguyen.
Data curation: Anis Saib. Investigation: Walid Amara, Pascal Wang, Simon Cattan, Azeddine Dellal, Kais Regaieg, Stephane Nahon, Olivier Nallet, Lee S. Nguyen. Resources: Pascal Wang. Supervision: Lee S. Nguyen. Validation: Walid Amara, Simon Cattan, Azeddine Dellal, Kais Regaieg, Stephane Nahon, Olivier Nallet. Visualization: Lee S. Nguyen. Writing -original draft: Anis Saib. Writing -review & editing: Olivier Nallet, Lee S. Nguyen.
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