AusDoc brings you the latest news from the American College of Rheumatology virtual congress 2020.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who take hydroxychloroquine do not appear to have longer corrected QT intervals (QTc) than others who are not on the drug, US researchers say.

Speaking to delegates at the ACR Convergence, the virtual congress of the American College of Rheumatologists, study coauthor Dr Elizabeth Park said concerns had been raised during the COVID-19 pandemic about the cardiac safety of the drug.

“Given recent concerns surrounding hydroxychloroquine’s use in COVID-19 patients and subsequent arrhythmic events, we wanted to examine the associations between its use and the QTc length on electrocardiograms in a large, asymptomatic cohort of RA and SLE patients,” says Dr Park, a rheumatology Fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Centre in New York, US.