3. Results
Between January 1st and May 31st 2020, among patients hospitalised in
the COVID-19 Units of Careggi University Hospital, Florence (Italy),
clinicians requested a consultation for a total of 23 patients who
experienced one or more ADRs.
All patients were Caucasian with a mean age of 76.1 (SD Table
2 ).
Table 3 shows a case-by-case description of evaluated ADR
reports. One patient presented an elevation of transaminases, 3 patients
experienced gastrointestinal (GI) ADRs (nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting and
GI pain), 18 patients showed cardiovascular (CV) ADRs (ECG QT
prolongation), one patients presented a prolongation of the QT interval
along with symptoms of major depression, and one patient reported
psychotic symptoms. The 19 patients who experienced an ECG QT
prolongation, showed a mean prolongation of QT interval of 496.1 (SD
±14.4) msec (Table 2 ).
Table 4 shows all moderate and major DDIs observed in our sample between
COVID-19 treatments and patients’ concomitant medications. The
application of tools for interactions revealed that all patients
presented at least one DDI. Among 82 different DDIs, 53 (64.4%) were
moderate, and 32 (39%) increased the risk of QT prolongation. Many
others DDIs (n=112) were identified between medications other than
COVID-19 treatments (Supplementary Table 1 ).