Treatment of Six COVID-19 Patients with Convalescent Plasma (preprint)

Objective The global mortality toll of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is rapidly increasing. Current antiviral therapy is insufficient, so it is crucial to develop new treatments. We assessed the efficacy of convalescent plasma transfusion for COVID-19 patients.Methods This retrospective, single-center study was conducted on six COVID-19 patients treated with convalescent plasma at Guizhou Provincial Jiangjunshan Hospital in China, from January 29 to April 30, 2020; the final follow-up data was collected on May 20, 2020. The efficacy of convalescent plasma was evaluated symptom relief and improvements in laboratory indicators and chest imaging abnormalities. Results Following treatment with convalescent plasma, the laboratory indicators and chest imaging examination of patients 1–3 changed from abnormal to normal. Regarding the relapsed patients (patients 4–6), two obtained negative severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results on consecutive throat swabs after receiving convalescent plasma therapy (on days 24 and 3 for patients 4 and 6, respectively). Patient 5 received only one round of convalescent plasma transfusion; this patient’s laryngeal swab test results for SARS-CoV-2 have remained consistently positive so far.Conclusions The clinical conditions of six patients with COVID-19 improved following treatment with antiviral drugs and systemic corticosteroids combined with appropriate rounds of convalescent plasma therapy, indicating that infusion with convalescent plasma may be beneficial for patients with COVID-19.This study was registered in Chinese Clinical Trial Registry Center. (CCTR number: ChiCTR 2000033056, registered 19 May 2020)

Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate in COVID-19 Infections (preprint)

Objectives To compare the clinical characteristics between the rapid cohort and the normal cohort of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in COVID-19 infections, analyze the variables with significant differences, and explore the influencing factors of rapid ESR. Methods Selected a total of 80 patients with ESR detection during hospitalization were measured in 146 patients who received medical observation in concentrated isolation hospital in Guizhou province in China , collected and compared demographic information, epidemiological data, clinical symptoms, laboratory test data and CT image data during the observation between rapid cohort and normal group of ESR. Results By comparison, the proportion of male in the rapid cohort was higher than female. The average age was more than 35 years old, with a large age gap. The proportion of severe and critical patients was more than 26.53% (13/49). However, in the normal cohort the proportion of female was more than male, and the average age was about 8 years lower than the rapid cohort, and the age gap was smaller. The proportion of severe and critical patients was 12.90%, which was less than half of the rapid group. In the two groups, the proportion of clustered cases accounted for more than 50%, and the average number of patients in one family was more than 3. The most common clinical symptoms were cough, sputum, fever, sore throat and weakness of limbs. There were significant differences in ALT, {gamma}-GT and C-reactive protein between the rapid and normal cohort (P<0.05), but no statistically significant in other indicators. Hemoglobin and C-reactive protein have a significant effect on erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Conclusions In this study, we found that ESR is related to Hemoglobin and C-reactive protein.