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A new study published in the world’s most important medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine, sheds new light on treating COVID-19 patients with healed plasma. The conclusion is short and very specific. And unfortunately not one that many of us would like to count on.
- «The New England Journal of Medicine» published «Randomized plasma study of convalescents in severe COVID-19 pneumonia»
- A randomized, double-blind study was conducted in 333 patients
- The study did not confirm that the plasma of convalescents improves the health of COVID-19 patients
- You can find more about the coronavirus on the TvoiLokony home page
The latest study on the effect of plasma from convalescents on the health of COVID-19 patients
Recently, a lot has been said about the plasma of convalescents. Many medical communities and doctors are calling for plasma donation to support the treatment of COVID-19 patients. One of the Polish companies, very prematurely, announced that Poland owned “the world’s first drug for coronavirus”. Moreover, a few days ago “Rzeczpospolita” confirmed in the Ministry of Finance the right to a tax credit for donating plasma by a convalescent.
All these activities could indicate that the plasma of convalescents has a real impact on improving the health of people suffering from COVID-19. Meanwhile, just published by The New England Journal of Medicine – one of the most important medical periodicals in the world – “Randomized plasma study of convalescents in severe pneumonia caused by COVID-19” makes us look at the use of plasma in a completely different way for the treatment of disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
What was the study like?
The study, coordinated by Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, was conducted at 12 clinical centers in Argentina between May and August this year.
Over 300 people took part in it. 228 patients received plasma from convalescents and 105 received placebo, and the median age of the patient population was 62 years.
The median time from symptom onset to study entry was 8 days, and the most important inclusion criterion was hypoxemia, i.e. a decrease in blood oxygen levels. All participants in the study were adults and had been diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection using the RT-PCR test.
Subjects received 500 ml of convalescent plasma or a placebo.
The study was randomized and was also double-blindso we can treat them as reliable.
Random distribution of the study participants to the reference groups – the researcher conducting the study has no influence on whether a given participant will receive the standard treatment or the tested product. Randomization is one of the methodological procedures used in scientific research to eliminate the influence of uncontrolled variables on the results of the experiment.
The use of a double-blind test means that neither the subject nor the person conducting the experiment have access to key information that could influence its course. This means that neither the researcher nor the respondent knows whether a given person is receiving the drug under test or, for example, a placebo.
Conclusions from the study
The conclusions of the study are unequivocal. As we read in the publication:
There were no significant differences in either clinical status or total mortality between patients treated with convalescent plasma and those treated with placebo.
As researchers point out, the use of recovering plasma did not provide significant clinical benefit over placebo in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. The use of convalescent plasma therapy in addition to standard treatment of patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia did not reduce mortality or improve other clinical outcomes at day 30 compared to placebo.
We believe that the use of convalescent plasma as standard of care for COVID-19 patients should be reviewed.
This finding contradicts the results so far of a series of non-randomized studies that found that the use of plasma from convalescents was of significant benefit. This shows how extremely important in assessing the potential of medicinal products is the use of randomized, controlled trials, especially in the context of a pandemic.
This is not the first such study, although it is the most important so far
The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, is not the first to show that healer’s plasma has no effect on improving the health of COVID-19 patients, although it is currently considered the most important.
We wrote about another study in June this year. It looked at the effect of passive antibody therapy added to standard COVID-19 treatment compared to treatment alone and was published in the JAMA Network journal. A randomized study of 103 patients with severe or life-threatening symptoms of COVID-19 showed that plasma therapy did not result in a statistically significant improvement in health within 28 days of its administration.
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