Profiling COVID-19 pneumonia progressing into the cytokine storm syndrome: Results from a single Italian Centre study on tocilizumab versus standard of care.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Approximately 5% of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) develop a life-threatening pneumonia that often occurs in the setting of increased inflammation or "cytokine storm". Anti-cytokine treatments are being evaluated but optimal patient selection remains unclear, and the aim of our study is to address this point.

Methods

Between February 29 to April 6, 2020, 111 consecutive hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia were evaluated in a single centre retrospective study. Patients were divided in two groups: 42 severe cases (TOCI) with adverse prognostic features including raised CRP and IL-6 levels, who underwent anti-cytokine treatments, mostly tocilizumab, and 69 standard of care patients (SOC).

Results

In the TOCI group, all received anti

SUBMITTER: Quartuccio L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7227535 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature