ABSTRACT
Background and objective: The outbreak of COVID-19 has become a global health concern. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness and safety of convalescent plasma therapy in patients with severe and critically ill COVID-19. Methods: Sixteen COVID-19 patients received transfusion of anti-COVID-19 antibody-positive convalescent plasma. The main outcome was time for viral nucleic acid amplification (NAA) test turning negative. Clinical laboratory parameters were measured at the baseline (d0) before plasma transfusion, and day 1 (d1), day 3 (d3) after transfusion as well. Results: Among the 16 patients, 10 of them had a consistently positive result of viral NAA test before convalescent plasma transfusion. Eight patients (8/10) became negative from day 2 to day 8 after transfusion. Severe patients showed a shorter time for NAA test turning negative after transfusion (mean rank 2.17 vs 5.90, P = 0.036). Two critically ill patients transfused plasma with lower antibody level remained a positive result of NAA test. CRP level demonstrated a decline 1 day after convalescent plasma treatment, compared with the baseline (P = 0.017). No adverse events were observed during convalescent plasma transfusion. Conclusions: Viral NAA test of most patients with COVID-19 who received convalescent plasma transfusion turned negative on the 2nd to 8th days after transfusion, and the negative time of severe patients was shorter than that of critically ill patients.