Conclusions
The way in which HCQ has been used during the Covid-19 pandemic has
resulted in a change in its safety profile. This change has reflected in
the SEFV-H database. Of particular concern, there has been an increase
in reporting disproportionality for cardiac arrhythmias, severe
hepatotoxicity, severe skin reactions, and suicidal risk. HCQ-related
eye disturbances seem to be mostly related to the prolonged use of the
drug. In the setting of the clinical HCQ use in Covid patients, we
identified the following signals: dyslipidaemias and some severe
gastrointestinal conditions, such as ischaemic colitis. On the contrary,
the signals identified for HCQ use in no-Covid patients were
malignancies and pulmonary interstitial disease. However, these findings
should be interpreted with caution, since they would need to be
subjected to a detailed analysis of the aggregate cases enabling to
formulate firmly based hypotheses. Furthermore, our findings need to be
replicated with appropriate observational studies allowing confirming
the hypotheses that eventually can be derived from the present study.