Metabolic and cardiovascular benefits of hydroxychloroquine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

With great interest, we read the paper recently published in the  Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases titled ‘Metabolic and cardiovascular benefits of hydroxychloroquine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA): a systematic review and meta-analysis’.1 In the study, the authors revealed that hydroxychloroquine may benefit the metabolic profile and to a lesser extent cardiovascular events in patients with RA. We congratulate and applaud their significant work for clinical practice, but there are some worthwhile issues that need to be further explored. First, the current meta-analysis was conducted according to the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, but the protocol, which should have been predefined, was not registered in any platforms, such as the Cochrane Library, PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/) and BMJ …