If there is a suspicion of a long-QT variant, exercise stress testing can be used as a screening test. I am concerned about possible drug interactions between the antibiotic azithromycin and the two heart medications warfarin and amiodarone. However, it may cause headache, dizziness, or rash. These drugs, in addition to antibiotics, include several antiarrhythmic medications (drugs that, ironically, are supposed to prevent arrhythmias), several antidepressant drugs, and several drugs used for gastrointestinal symptoms. Anyone who has one of these genetic markers should avoid azithromycin and any other drug on this list. Cleocin is a lincomycin Cleocin (clindamycin) is an antibiotic used to treat severe Zithromax Z-PAK (azithromycin) is a semi-synthetic macrolide antibiotic used for treating:Zithromax is also effective against several sexually transmitted infectious diseases (STDs) such as nongonococcal Copyright © 2020 by RxList Inc. RxList does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Similarly, erythromycin and clarithromycin were found to be linked to an increased risk of sudden cardiac death, according to the study. Fungal Skin Infections: Types, Symptoms, and TreatmentsBowel regularity means a bowel movement every day. Copyright © 2018 by RxList Inc. RxList does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. For a complete list of all side effects, click here. Dr. Ali is also an award-winning writer. He is Verywell's Senior Medical Advisor. If doctors are exposing patients to any degree of extra risk, they should be sure that the risk is warranted by the expected benefit of treatment. Doctors should always exercise a degree of caution before prescribing a drug that prolongs the QT interval in anyone with a history of unexplained syncope, a family history of QT-interval-related problems, an abnormal QT interval on their ECG, or with underlying heart disease. Ⓒ 2020 About, Inc. (Dotdash) — All rights reservedExercise Recommendations for People With Long QT Syndrome (LQTS)What You Should Know About Ambulatory ECG MonitoringThe 4 Main Types of Drugs That Treat Cardiac ArrhythmiasWhat to Expect When Taking Ranexa to Treat Chronic AnginaPreventing Sudden Death With the Implantable DefibrillatorWhat Is Non-Sustained Ventricular Tachycardia (NSVT)? Cleocin (clindamycin hydrochloride) and Zithromax Z-PAK (azithromycin) are antibiotics used to treat various infections caused by bacteria. But given the current state of the art, for the most part doctors will prescribe drugs like azithromycin, when needed, in anyone without heart disease who has no personal or family history compatible with long-QT syndrome, and whose baseline electrocardiogram is normal — especially if the drug has already been used several times with no sign of a problem. In fact, similar to their azithromycin warning, the FDA released a warning in 2017 in regard to clarithromycin. The macrolide antibiotics thus join a long list of drugs that can prolong the QT interval, and which can, therefore, increase the risk of sudden death in susceptible individuals who have a variant of long-QT syndrome or underlying heart disease. Yasmine S. Ali, MD, MSCI, is a board-certified preventive cardiologist and lipidologist. Nachteil des verzögerten Wirkstoffabbaus hingegen ist die Begünstigung einer Resistenzbildung der Erreger gegen Azithromycin. (This warning generated much less media coverage than the azithromycin warning from four years earlier.) Cardiac arrhythmias that can produce sudden death have been reported with the other macrolide antibiotics. Most physicians today avoid using any of these QT-interval-prolonging drugs in people who have known long-QT syndrome, in family members of people with long-QT syndrome, or in people who have had unexplained episodes of cardiac arrest or syncope. The study found that patients taking azithromycin for five days were three times more likely to suffer a fatal cardiovascular event, compared with patients who took no antibiotics. Read our Azithromycin, it seems, also caused irregular heartbeats in some patients. Cleocin and Zithromax are different types of antibiotics. Ⓒ 2020 About, Inc. (Dotdash) — All rights reserved And in the case of the macrolide antibiotics, that caution is especially warranted — not because these drugs are more dangerous than other drugs on the list, but because antibiotics, in general, are greatly overused anyway. This communication is based on the findings of a study [ 7 ] by medical researchers as well as another study reported by one of the manufacturers of azithromycin that assessed the arrhythmogenic potential for …