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Erythromycin is a commonly-prescribed antibiotic that can cause lengthening of the rate-corrected QT interval (QTc) on an electrocardiogram. Rarely, this antibiotic is also associated with torsades de pointes, a malignant cardiac arrhythmia. Since prolongation of the QTc occurs more often in women, these researchers asked whether torsades de pointes occurs more commonly in female erythromycin users and if so, why?
The FDA's database on adverse drug reactions reported 346 cases of erythromycin-associated cardiac arrhythmias between 1970 and 1996, of which 58% were female, 32% male, and 10% unspecified. Of 49 life-threatening arrhythmias and deaths related to intravenous erythromycin administration, 67% occurred in women and 33% in men. Odds r…