Disentangling the Association of Hydroxychloroquine Treatment with Mortality in Covid-19 Hospitalized Patients through Hierarchical Clustering

• Main Authors: Augusto Di Castelnuovo, Alessandro Gialluisi, Andrea Antinori, Nausicaa Berselli, Lorenzo Blandi, Marialaura Bonaccio, Raffaele Bruno, Roberto Cauda, Simona Costanzo, Giovanni Guaraldi, Lorenzo Menicanti, Marco Mennuni, Ilaria My, Giustino Parruti, Giuseppe Patti, Stefano Perlini, Francesca Santilli, Carlo Signorelli, Giulio Stefanini, Alessandra Vergori, Walter Ageno, Antonella Agodi, Piergiuseppe Agostoni, Luca Aiello, Samir Al Moghazi, Rosa Arboretti, Filippo Aucella, Greta Barbieri, Martina Barchitta, Paolo Bonfanti, Francesco Cacciatore, Lucia Caiano, Francesco Cannata, Laura Carrozzi, Antonio Cascio, Giacomo Castiglione, Arturo Ciccullo, Antonella Cingolani, Francesco Cipollone, Claudia Colomba, Crizia Colombo, Annalisa Crisetti, Francesca Crosta, Gian Battista Danzi, Damiano D'Ardes, Katleen de Gaetano Donati, Francesco Di Gennaro, Giuseppe Di Tano, Gianpiero D'Offizi, Francesco Maria Fusco, Carlo Gaudiosi, Ivan Gentile, Francesco Gianfagna1, Gabriele Giuliano, Emauele Graziani, Gabriella Guarnieri, Valerio Langella, Giovanni Larizza, Armando Leone, Gloria Maccagni, Federica Magni, Stefano Maitan, Sandro Mancarella, Rosa Manuele, Massimo Mapelli, Riccardo Maragna, Rossella Marcucci, Giulio Maresca, Silvia Marongiu, Claudia Marotta, Lorenzo Marra, Franco Mastroianni, Alessandro Mengozzi, Marianna Meschiari, Jovana Milic, Filippo Minutolo, Roberta Mussinelli, Cristina Mussini, Maria Musso, Anna Odone, Marco Olivieri, Antonella Palimodde, Emanuela Pasi, Raffaele Pesavento, Francesco Petri, Carlo A Pivato, Venerino Poletti, Claudia Ravaglia, Giulia Righetti, Andrea Rognoni, Marco Rossato, Ilaria Rossi, Marianna Rossi, Anna Sabena, Francesco Salinaro, Vincenzo Sangiovanni, Carlo Sanrocco, Nicola Schiano Moriello, Laura Scorzolini, Raffaella Sgariglia, Paola Giustina Simeone, Michele Spinicci, Enrica Tamburrini, Carlo Torti, Enrico Maria Trecarichi, Roberto Vettor, Andrea Vianello, Marco Vinceti, Agostino Virdis, Raffaele De Caterina, Licia Iacoviello
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2021-01-01
• Series: Journal of Healthcare Engineering
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/5556207

The efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in treating SARS-CoV-2 infection is harshly debated, with observational and experimental studies reporting contrasting results. To clarify the role of HCQ in Covid-19 patients, we carried out a retrospective observational study of 4,396 unselected patients hospitalized for Covid-19 in Italy (February–May 2020). Patients’ characteristics were collected at entry, including age, sex, obesity, smoking status, blood parameters, history of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and chronic pulmonary diseases, and medications in use. These were used to identify subtypes of patients with similar characteristics through hierarchical clustering based on Gower distance. Using multivariable Cox regressions, these clusters were then tested for association with mortality and modification of effect by treatment with HCQ. We identified two clusters, one of 3,913 younger patients with lower circulating inflammation levels and better renal function, and one of 483 generally older and more comorbid subjects, more prevalently men and smokers. The latter group was at increased death risk adjusted by HCQ (HR[CI95%] = 3.80[3.08-4.67]), while HCQ showed an independent inverse association (0.51[0.43-0.61]), as well as a significant influence of cluster∗HCQ interaction (p<0.001). This was driven by a differential association of HCQ with mortality between the high (0.89[0.65-1.22]) and the low risk cluster (0.46[0.39-0.54]). These effects survived adjustments for additional medications in use and were concordant with associations with disease severity and outcome. These findings suggest a particularly beneficial effect of HCQ within low risk Covid-19 patients and may contribute to clarifying the current controversy on HCQ efficacy in Covid-19 treatment.