Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32808712›Full record

SynthesisJournal of medical virology2021

Hydroxychloroquine for treatment of nonsevere COVID-19 patients: Systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials.

Hozaifa Khalil Elsawah, Mohamed Ahmed Elsokary, Mahmoud Gamal Elrazzaz, Ahmed Hanei Elshafie

Open access · bronzeAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of medical virology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
0.5field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Guideline
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Review
  6. A hitchhiker's guide through the COVID-19 galaxy.Clinical immunology (Orlando, Fla.) · 2021
    Review
  7. [COVID-19: Critical appraisal of the evidence].Anales de pediatria (Barcelona, Spain : 2003) · 2021
    Article
  8. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Hozaifa Khalil ElsawahDepartment of Biostatistics, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.ORCID 0000-0003-2965-9944
Mohamed Ahmed ElsokaryDepartment of Biostatistics, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.ORCID 0000-0002-9832-5086
Mahmoud Gamal ElrazzazIQVIA for the Human Data Science, The Fifth Settlement, Cairo, Egypt.
Ahmed Hanei ElshafieDepartment of Neuropsychiatry, Shebin Elkom Teaching Hospital, Shebin Elkom, Egypt.ORCID 0000-0002-2901-2158
Alexandria University · EGIQVIA (United Kingdom) · GBShebin Teaching Hospital · EG

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Being a pandemic and having a high global case fatality rate directed us to assess the evidence strength of hydroxychloroquine efficacy in treating coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) arising from clinical trials and to update the practice with the most reliable clinical evidence. A comprehensive search was started in June up to 18 July, 2020 in many databases, including PubMed, Embase, and others. Of 432 studies found, only six studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria, which includes: clinical trials, age more than 12 years with nonsevere COVID-19, polymerase chain reaction-confirmed COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine is the intervention beyond the usual care. Data extraction and bias risk assessment were done by two independent authors. Both fixed-effect and random-effect models were utilized for pooling data using risk difference as a summary measure. The primary outcomes are clinical and radiological COVID-19 progression, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 clearance in the pharyngeal swab, and mortality. The secondary outcomes are the adverse effects of hydroxychloroquine. Among 609 COVID-19 confirmed patients obtained from pooling six studies, 294 patients received hydroxychloroquine and 315 patients served as a control. Hydroxychloroquine significantly prevents early radiological progression relative to control with risk difference and 95% confidence interval of -0.2 (-0.36 to -0.03). On the other hand, hydroxychloroquine did not prevent clinical COVID-19 progression, reduce 5-day mortality, or enhance viral clearance on days 5, 6, and 7. Moreover, many adverse effects were reported with hydroxychloroquine therapy. Failure of hydroxychloroquine to show viral clearance or clinical benefits with additional adverse effects outweigh its protective effect from radiological progression in nonsevere COVID-19 patients. Benefit-risk balance should determine the hydroxychloroquine use in COVID-19.

Indexed as

COVID-19 Drug TreatmentClinical Trials as TopicHumansHydroxychloroquineHydroxychloroquineCOVID-19hydroxychloroquinemortalityProgressionviral clearance

Identifiers

PMID32808712
PMCPMC7461373
OpenAlexW3049273381

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.