Bakhtawar Nabiyah, Usman Muhammad, Khan Malik Muhammad Uzair
Internal Medicine, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, Coventry, GBR.
Internal Medicine, Kettering General Hospital, Kettering, GBR.
Cureus. 2020 Aug 3;12(8):e9535. doi: 10.7759/cureus.9535.
Started in late 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly turned into a global pandemic. Considering there is no proven therapy for COVID-19 infection, there is a need to propose potential treatment options. The use of convalescent plasma is one such option as convalescent plasma has previously been used for treating outbreaks of Ebola, influenza, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and severe acute respiratory (SAR) viruses. Therefore, we carried out an early systematic review to evaluate the efficacy of convalescent plasma (CP) therapy and its effects on COVID-19 patient outcomes. A structured and rigorous systematic review was carried out that included all studies conducted on this topic between December 2019 and June 2020. A total of 10 studies containing a mix of case reports, case series, observational studies, and randomized control trials were identified. Most of the studies lacked randomization and included only small groups of patients. Considering the limitations in the design of current studies, it is difficult to draw a definitive conclusion. However, our results showed that plasma therapy produces notable improvements in patients' clinical symptoms and radiological and biochemical parameters associated with COVID-19 infection. Based on the available information, it is difficult to draw a tangible conclusion about whether plasma therapy improves patient mortality. Until we have concrete evidence to prove otherwise, convalescent plasma therapy may be used as adjuvant therapy for treating COVID-19 infection in critically ill patients.
2019年末开始的2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）迅速演变成一场全球大流行。鉴于目前尚无经证实的针对COVID-19感染的治疗方法，有必要提出潜在的治疗方案。使用康复期血浆就是这样一种选择，因为康复期血浆此前已被用于治疗埃博拉、流感、中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒（MERS-CoV）和严重急性呼吸综合征（SARS）病毒的疫情。因此，我们进行了一项早期系统评价，以评估康复期血浆（CP）治疗的疗效及其对COVID-19患者预后的影响。我们进行了一项结构化且严格的系统评价，纳入了2019年12月至2020年6月间针对该主题开展的所有研究。共识别出10项研究，包括病例报告、病例系列、观察性研究和随机对照试验。大多数研究缺乏随机分组，且仅纳入了一小部分患者。考虑到当前研究设计的局限性，很难得出明确结论。然而，我们的结果显示，血浆治疗使患者与COVID-19感染相关的临床症状、影像学和生化参数有显著改善。基于现有信息，很难就血浆治疗是否能改善患者死亡率得出切实结论。在我们有确凿证据证明并非如此之前，康复期血浆治疗可作为重症COVID-19感染患者的辅助治疗方法。
