A lot of China in the news today. Some Chinese researchers performed a meta-analysis (essentially collecting a bunch of other research articles and trying to compare similar research) and found a small but significant association between use of macrolide antibiotics (erythromycin, clarithromycin (Biaxin), azithromycin (Zithromax)) and an increased incidence of heart attacks and cardiac arrythmias. Nobody knows why this happens and my guess is that there is some underlying variable that predisposes people who take macrolide antibiotics to have heart problems like a drug-drug interaction or perhaps a blood chemistry abnormality like low serum potassium or something. The Chinese study doesn’t answer that question, but it is a place to start.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Arrhythmias/54705?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2015-11-16&eun=g677213d0r
