Metoprolol‘s Potential Beneficial Effects On Covid-19 Patients

Abstract

Background: We aimed to find the potential beneficial effects of metoprolol, which was added to the treatment of COVID-19 patients with drug-induced long corrected QT (di-LQTc) interval. Materials and Methods: This study was a retrospective study. Hospitalized patient files were scanned, and the data of 160 Covid-19 positive patients who were confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) between April 1 and June 1, 2020, were analyzed. A total of 52 patients’ data with CoVID-19 patients with di-LQTc were scanned and collected in the metoprolol group, and a total of 108 patients’ data with CoVID-19 with normal QTc levels were collected in the non-metoprolol group. Results: The mean age was 48.58±16.52 (48.75% male). The in-hospital mortality rate was 3.125% (n=5). We did not see any malignant arrhythmias in the groups during follow-up. In the metoprolol group, the peak Qtc was 466.50 (458.75-477.50) msec in patients before metoprolol treatment, whereas it decreased to 443 (428.75-453) msec at discharge. Forward conditional logistic regression analysis demonstrated that basal C-reactive protein (CRP) (OR=1.031, 95%CI: 1.001-1.062, p=0.043) was the independent predictor of di-LQTc in Covid-19 patients. Conclusion: COVID-19 patients with di-LQTc could be treated and we thought we could reverse the QT prolongation by adding metoprolol to the treatment protocol.