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Small chloroquine study halted over risk of fatal heart complications

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Digger

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Small chloroquine study halted over risk of fatal heart complications - Chicago Tribune

They upped the dose by a third, and 11 people died.

Roughly half the study participants were given a dose of 450 milligrams of chloroquine twice daily for five days, while the rest were prescribed a higher dose of 600 milligrams for 10 days. Within three days, researchers started noticing heart arrhythmias in patients taking the higher dose.

By the sixth day of treatment, 11 patients had died, leading to an immediate end to the high-dose segment of the trial.
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Last edited:
Any deaths of people who passed for lack of this medicine due to Trump's reckless words should be counted with other virus deaths.
 
j brown's body said:
Any deaths of people who passed for lack of this medicine due to Trump's reckless words should be counted with other virus deaths.
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And, President Trump, this is why we have scientific trials.
 
beefheart said:
But the cult leader said it was our savior...
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It still might be. The large scale study results aren't in yet. But now we know to be very careful not to exceed dosages even by a little. One thing to watch out for is that this stuff is bio accumulative. It builds up in your adipose tissue and takes months to go away. That's why adverse effects didn't start until day 3 and people didn't die until day 6.
 
it was Trump's Hail Mary.
 
Digger said:
It still might be. The large scale study results aren't in yet. But now we know to be very careful not to exceed dosages even by a little. One thing to watch out for is that this stuff is bio accumulative. It builds up in your adipose tissue and takes months to go away. That's why adverse effects didn't start until day 3 and people didn't die until day 6.
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It most likely won't be.
 
Digger said:
Small chloroquine study halted over risk of fatal heart complications - Chicago Tribune

They upped the dose by a third, and 11 people died.
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People die during clinical studies .. it shouldn't come as a surprise. This Brazilian study included a small sample of hospitalized patients and different dosage amounts were prescribed: 50 MG vs. 600 MG. While the larger doses produced unfavorable results, the study concluded that additional studies (much needed) will be required to determine the efficacy of the drug. The global push to leverage this drug should accelerate the necessary studies to determine its efficacy. There just isn't enough data available yet.
 
Bullseye said:
What is the normal prescribed dosage? What other comorbidities did the patients have? Who authorized the study?
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This is an off-label use, so clinical trials will be needed to determine the answer.
 
jotathought said:
This is an off-label use, so clinical trials will be needed to determine the answer.
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FDA approved it for emergency use. Did that include dosage guidelines. The subject test was done in Brazil.
 
jotathought said:
People die during clinical studies .. it shouldn't come as a surprise. This Brazilian study included a small sample of hospitalized patients and different dosage amounts were prescribed: 50 MG vs. 600 MG. While the larger doses produced unfavorable results, the study concluded that additional studies (much needed) will be required to determine the efficacy of the drug. The global push to leverage this drug should accelerate the necessary studies to determine its efficacy. There just isn't enough data available yet.
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Good point. Tell Trump.
 
Bullseye said:
What is the normal prescribed dosage? What other comorbidities did the patients have? Who authorized the study?
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Typical dosage for acute malaria is 2500 mg given spread over 3 days. I've also read that chloroquine has a half-life of 45+ days and toxicity can start at 20 mg/kg, or twice the normal dose of 10 mg/kg, and a mere 30 mg/kg (three times the normal dose) can cause death. I don't know how much these patients weighed so we'll go with 2500 mg over 3 days as a normal, safe(ish) dose.

So the doctors in this study planned to give their high-dosage patients 12,000 mg of a drug that can kill at 7,500 mg. The plan was to give it over 10 days, which doesn't matter because it takes well over 10 days for the drug to decrease by half. In 10 days, there's no way that the first dose would decrease by more than 1/4 in the body, and each successive dose would just build and build on top. Essentially, they were purposely overdosing these patients, and the study ended when the high-dose individuals received 7,200 mg and about 1/4 died - the only real surprise is that more didn't die.

This was a highly irresponsible study that I am surprised passed any kind of review board and it should not be used as evidence against trialing chloroquine for this purpose. You know, in doses that aren't lethal by definition.

The fact is that I can't find a study that actually points towards chloroquine being actually useful in the fight against the virus outside of a petri dish situation with cells. As a healthcare professional, I am hoping that more responsible trial results will yield actual results that could be useful. We should uniformly discourage the kind of trials where we're just throwing drugs like candy at people. It's bad science and terrible medicine.
 
Bullseye said:
FDA approved it for emergency use. Did that include dosage guidelines. The subject test was done in Brazil.
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I've not read anything about dosage guidelines .. studies will determine these recommendations. To your point, the FDA authorized an emergency use to stockpile the Strategic National Stockpile with 30-ish million doses.
 
Digger said:
Good point. Tell Trump.
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This is a good thing which will accelerate clinical studies, and these studies will determine the efficacy of the drug (regardless if it were Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton advocating the drug).
 
Bullseye said:
What is the normal prescribed dosage? What other comorbidities did the patients have? Who authorized the study?
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Did they have their wisdom teeth? Ever had sex in an elevator? Keep looking!! I'll just bet having a hangnail in 2001 can be weaved in there somehow.
 
jotathought said:
I've not read anything about dosage guidelines .. studies will determine these recommendations. To your point, the FDA authorized an emergency use to stockpile the Strategic National Stockpile with 30-ish million doses.
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And what was the size of those doses?
 
SkyFox76 said:
Did they have their wisdom teeth? Ever had sex in an elevator? Keep looking!! I'll just bet having a hangnail in 2001 can be weaved in there somehow.
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seriously?
 
j brown's body said:
Any deaths of people who passed for lack of this medicine due to Trump's reckless words should be counted with other virus deaths.
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Orange Man Orange Man Orange Man. This happens to be the most common drug being used globally to try to fight the virus. I read the other day they were tinkering with dosages in studies to see if they should/could up the initial dose and lower the subsequent doses.
 
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