Incidence of Cardiac Dysrhythmia in COVID-19 Patients Treated with Conventional Medications – A Brief Report of 58 Patients

Introduction: When World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Covid-19 is a pandemic, a wide range of drugs, including antiviral drugs and antibiotics have been taken to treat this disease. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence of cardiac dysrhythmias due to the conventional medications in 58 COVID -19 patients. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional analytical study was performed to determine the incidence of dysrhythmias due to the conventional medications in 58 COVID -19 patients. The instruments used in this study were a checklist consisted of two parts: 1- Demographic information, 2- A Checklist to investigate the incidence of changes in the patient's electrocardiogram (ECG). The collected data were entered into SPSS Ver 20 software, and statistical analyzes were performed, considering the significance level of P< 0.05. Results: The data of 58 patients were analyzed. The results showed that the use of Lopinavir-Ritonavir in 71.4% of patients increased the QTC interval, and in 77.1% increased the RR interval in QRS complexes. Only a significant relationship between the use of Lopinavir-Ritonavir and QTC (P< 0.05). Conclusions: Taking Lopinavir-Ritonavir in some cases increases the QTC interval in patients with Covid-19 and may expose them to life-threatening dysrhythmias such as ventricular tachycardia and torsade de pointes.