Restrospective analysis and pharmaceutical care of immunotherapeutic drug tocilizumab for COVID-19

Since December 2019, COVID-19 had spread many countries, attracting high attention from the world. Its infectivity is strong, harm is big, at present there is no definite effective antiviral drug. Recently, the national health commission released the latest "new coronavirus pneumonia diagnosis and treatment program (trial seventh edition)", which for the first time proposed immunotherapy program based on Tocilizumab (TCZ). In this paper, firstly, a review of articles on the treatment of immune system diseases with TCZ at home and abroad was conducted to analyze the effectiveness of TCZ in the treatment of severe and critical COVID-19. Then, from the safety point of view, the drug interactions, drug use in special population, adverse reactions and medication precautions were presented in detail, which can be used as a medication reference for the treatment of COVID-19 severe and critical patients.

Analysis on utilization of anti-new Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) drugs of inpatients in the third people's hospital of Hubei province

Objective: To analyze the utilization of anti-new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) drugs of inpatients in Hubei N0.3 People's Hospital.

COVID-19 patients with hypertension are at potential risk of worsened organ injury.

In less than 6 months, COVID-19 spread rapidly around the world and became a global health concern. Hypertension is the most common chronic disease in COVID-19 patients, but its impact on these patients has not been well described. In this retrospective study, 82 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were enrolled, and epidemiological, demographic, clinical, laboratory, radiological and therapy-related data were analyzed and compared between COVID-19 patients with (29 cases) or without (53 cases) hypertension. The median age of the included patients was 60.5 years, and the cohort included 49 women (59.8%) and 33 (40.2%) men. Hypertension (31 [28.2%]) was the most common chronic illness, followed by diabetes (16 [19.5%]) and cardiovascular disease (15 [18.3%]). The most common symptoms were fatigue (55 [67.1%]), dry cough (46 [56.1%]) and fever ≥ 37.3 °C (46 [56.1%]). The median time from illness onset to positive RT-PCR test was 13.0 days (range 3-25 days). There were 6 deaths (20.7%) in the hypertension group and 5 deaths (9.4%) in the nonhypertension group, and more hypertensive patients with COVID-19 (8 [27.6%]) than nonhypertensive patients (2 [3.8%]) (P = 0.002) had at least one comorbid disease. Compared with nonhypertensive patients, hypertensive patients exhibited higher neutrophil counts, serum amyloid A, C-reactive protein, and NT-proBNP and lower lymphocyte counts and eGFR. Dynamic observations indicated more severe disease and poorer outcomes after hospital admission in the hypertension group. COVID-19 patients with hypertension have increased risks of severe inflammatory reactions, serious internal organ injury, and disease progression and deterioration.

Clinical characteristics of rehospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China.

This study aims to observe the clinical characteristics of recovered patients from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) with positive in reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or serum antibody. The profile, clinical symptoms, laboratory outcomes, and radiologic assessments were extracted on 11 patients, who tested positive for COVID-19 with RT-PCR or serum antibody after discharged and was admitted to Hubei No. 3 People's Hospital of Jianghan University for a second treatment in March 2020. The average interval time between the first discharge and the second admission measured 16.00 ± 7.14 days, ranging from 6 to 27 days. In the second hospitalization, one patient was positive for RT-PCR and serum antibody immunoglobulin M (IgM)-immunoglobulin G (IgG), five patients were positive for both IgM and IgG but negative for RT-PCR. Three patients were positive for both RT-PCR and IgG but negative for IgM. The main symptoms were cough (54.55%), fever (27.27%), and feeble (27.27%) in the second hospitalization. Compared with the first hospitalization, there were significant decreases in gastrointestinal symptoms (5 vs 0, P = .035), elevated levels of both white blood cell count (P = .036) and lymphocyte count (P = .002), remarkedly decreases in C-reactive protein and serum amyloid A (P < .05) in the second hospitalization. Additionally, six patients' chest computed tomography (CT) exhibited notable improvements in acute exudative lesions. There could be positive results for RT-PCR analysis or serum IgM-IgG in discharged patients, even with mild clinical symptoms, however, their laboratory outcomes and chest CT images would not indicate the on-going development in those patients.