The efficacy of probiotics in patients with severe COVID-19.
Ann Palliat Med
; 10(12): 12374-12380, 2021 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1614434
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
To examine the incidence of diarrhea in severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, and to observe the efficacy and prognosis of probiotic use in such patients.METHODS:
A retrospective study was conducted to investigate the symptoms and incidence of diarrhea in 156 cases of COVID-19 confirmed by the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University and the Xinyang Fifth People's Hospital, China. A total of 58 cases of severe and critical COVID-19 were identified and divided into the treatment group or the control group. The control group was given standard treatment according to the Protocols for Diagnosis and Treatment of COVID-19 Prevention, Control, Diagnosis and Management. Patients in the treatment group were administered oral probiotics as well as the standard treatment. The 2 groups were compared in terms of nutritional status (serum albumin), improvement of diarrhea symptoms, changes in inflammatory condition [procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP)], the time taken to register a negative result for respiratory tract pathogens on the nucleic acid test, and changes to white blood cell and lymphocyte cell counts.RESULTS:
In this study cohort, diarrhea was detected in 15.38% (24/156) of COVID-19 patients. The incidence of diarrhea in patients with mild and moderate COVID-19 was approximately 8.16% (8/98), and the incidence of diarrhea in severe and critically ill patients was approximately 27.59% (16/58). In patients with severe and critical COVID-19, probiotic treatment obviously shortened the duration of diarrhea. Furthermore, compared with the control group, patients treated with probiotics showed a significantly reduced time to achieving a negative nucleic acid test and the inflammation indexes including PCT and CRP were significantly reduced (P<0.05).CONCLUSIONS:
The incidence of diarrhea in severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients was significantly higher than that in patients with mild and moderate COVID-19. Probiotics may have a good supporting role in the treatment of patients with COVID-19 and its early application is recommended.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Probiotics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Ann Palliat Med
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Apm-21-3373
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