Causes of fetal third-degree atrioventricular block and use of hydroxychloroquine in pregnant women with Ro/La antibodies

British Society for Rheumatology guideline on prescribing drugs in pregnancy and breastfeeding: immunomodulatory anti-rheumatic drugs and corticosteroids

“…Despite these limitations, there were no appreciable adverse effects of HCQ on pregnancy duration or birth weight in the largest studies. In fact, several studies comparing HCQ-treated and untreated cohorts with rheumatic disease (mostly SLE) either found no significant difference between cohorts [17,19,21,24,28,34,36,37], or significantly longer pregnancy durations and/or higher birth weight in the HCQtreated pregnancies [18,20,22,25,27,29,30,32,33,35].…”

“…Despite these limitations, there were no appreciable adverse effects of HCQ on pregnancy duration or birth weight in the largest studies. In fact, several studies comparing HCQ-treated and untreated cohorts with rheumatic disease (mostly SLE) either found no significant difference between cohorts [ 17 , 19 , 21 , 24 , 28 , 34 , 36 , 37 ], or significantly longer pregnancy durations and/or higher birth weight in the HCQ-treated pregnancies [ 18 , 20 , 22 , 25 , 27 , 29 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 35 ]. The weighted mean for gestation across 15 studies reporting pregnancy duration in HCQ-exposed vs HCQ-unexposed pregnancies was 36.4 weeks and 34.7 weeks, respectively [ 18–21 , 24 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 32–34 , 36 , 37 , 43 , 49 ].…”

The Potential Adverse Reactions of Administering Combination Therapy in Covid-19 Patients

“…Clinicians should be cautioned that cardiovascular side effects, even conduction abnormalities without severe consequences, associated with the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, may be initial toxicity manifestations and potentially irreversible. [6][7][8] Older patients undergo age-related physiological changes that are manifested in the changes of drug pharmacodynamics, potentially causing increased drug interactions and risk of side effects. Drug interactions and side effects associated with the use of antimalarial drugs in elderly may occur more frequently due to QT prolongation, decreased renal elimination, and decreased hepatic metabolism [9].…”

Whole-Exome Sequencing Identifies a Novel TRPM4 Mutation in a Chinese Family with Atrioventricular Block

“…Varying clin-ical figures like tiredness, chest pain, shortness of breath, or syncope are associated with third-degree AVB patients. Besides, third-degree AVB patients generally necessitate pacemakers for survival [8,9].…”