Jorge A, Lu N, Choi H, et al. - In patients with SLE and RA, findings showed a decreased risk of overall cardiovascular (CV) events related to current hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) use including decreases in venous thromboembolism (VTE) and trends towards decreases in myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. Results indicate a possible cardiovascular preventative advantage of HCQ use.

• In this nested case-control study, 10,268 cases and 29,969 controls were analyzed to assess the potential temporal link between HCQ use and CV events in patients with SLE or RA.

• For current HCQ use vs remote use, the estimated adjusted conditional odd ratios (cORs) (95% CI) were 0.86 (0.77-0.97) for combined CV events, 0.88 (0.74, 1.05) for MI, 0.87 (0.74, 1.03) for stroke, and 0.74 (0.59, 0.94) for VTE.

• Relative to remote users, similar odds of combined CV events were noted in recent HCQ users and non-users (cORs 0.93 ([95% CI, 0.77-1.13] and 0.96 [95% CI, 0.88-1.04], respectively).