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QT Prolongation, Ventricular Arrhythmia, and Cardiac Arrest Signals During Ceftriaxone Co-therapy with Individual Proton Pump Inhibitors: A Multidatabase Study

Chen Y, Gu Q, Zhao M, Zhao A, Kong Z, Shen H, Zhang Y, Wang S et al.

Cardiovascular toxicology, 2026

5,594 participants

Abstract

The concomitant use of ceftriaxone and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) is common in hospital practice. However, it is unclear whether individual PPIs differ in their effects on QT interval prolongation, ventricular arrhythmia, or cardiac arrest, collectively termed as QVC events. We conducted a two-stage, real-world study. First, we screened the United States Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and the Canada Vigilance Adverse Reaction (CVAR) database with standard disproportionality measures (reporting odds ratio and proportional reporting ratio) and six drug-drug interaction (DDI) algorithms to identify combination signals that exceeded component signals. Second, we validated signal-positive combinations in the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV) intensive care unit (ICU) electronic health record (EHR) cohort by assembling adult inpatients with overlapping ceftriaxone-PPI exposures. The primary outcome was 28-day QVC events. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were the main analysis and complemented by propensity score matching, inverse probability of treatment weighting, and Fine-Gray competing-risk models. To address external generalisability, an additional validation was performed using ECG-ViEW II, an Asian electrocardiogram-linked real-world database. The combination of ceftriaxone and lansoprazole was significantly associated with QVC events, revealing notable DDIs (e.g., in FAERS, Ω025 = 0.54). To…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence. Reported size: 5,594 participants or records.

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