Island Drug Podcast

A heavily prescribed antibiotic, azithromycin, was in the news a couple weeks ago as the FDA took steps to strengthen warnings that the drug could cause heart arrhythmias. The FDA's action was prompted by a 2012 study in the New England Journal of Medicine which compared the likelihood of fatal cardiovascular events in patients during short courses of a few commonly prescribed antibiotics. The study found a small but statistically significant increase in cardiovascular death in patients with heart disease who were prescribed azithromycin. Please click here to download the accompanying text; http://islanddrug.com/podcasts/azithro.pdf