Experts interviewed: Professor Yu Mengyue, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated in a drug safety bulletin that medical personnel should carefully open clarithromycin to patients with coronary heart disease because it can increase the risk of death.
Yu Mengyue, Professor of Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said that the FDA's warning is based on a 10-year follow-up of a study that confirmed that after 2 weeks of clarithromycin treatment, the mortality rate of coronary heart disease increased. As early as in 2005, the 1-year follow-up result of this study has already indicated this risk. In the last 10 years, the study verified this conclusion again. This study has a large sample size, long follow-up time, and high credibility. Therefore, FDA recommends that coronary heart patients should use other types of antibiotics instead of clarithromycin.
Clarithromycin is a macrolide antibiotic. This type of antibiotic has inhibitory or killing effects on most bacteria, mycoplasma, and chlamydia. It is mainly used for upper and lower respiratory tract, skin infections, and has wide clinical applications. It has many alternatives. Drugs such as roxithromycin, azithromycin, etc. Coronary heart patients can use these drugs as a treatment.
