Abstract
BackgroundSince the COVID-19 pandemic, several therapeutic agents have been used in COVID-19 management. However, the results were controversial. Here, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)/chloroquine (CQ) in COVID-19.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed the medical charts of patients with COVID-19 admitted to an inpatient ward in Wuhan from 2020/Feb/08 to 2020/Mar/05. Patients with HCQ/CQ and age, gender, disease severity matched ones without HCQ/CQ were selected at a 1:2 ratio. The clinical, laboratory and imaging findings were compared between these two groups. The multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to identify the factors that might influence patients’ virus shedding periods (VSPs).ResultsA total of 14 patients with HCQ/CQ and 21 matched ones were analyzed. The HCQ/CQ treatment lasted for an average of 10.36 ± 3.12 days. The mean VSPs were longer in the HCQ/CQ treatment group (26.57 ± 10.35 days vs. 19.10 ± 7.80 days, P = 0.020). There were 3 patients deceased during inpatient period, two patients were with HCQ/CQ treatment (P = 0.551). In the multivariate linear regression analysis, disease durations at admission (t = 3.643, P = 0.001) and HCQ/CQ treatment (t = 2.637, P = 0.013) were independent parameters for patients’ VSPs. One patient with CQ had recurrent first-degree atrioventricular block (AVB) and obvious QTc elongation, another one complained about dizziness and blurred vision which disappeared after CQ discontinuation. One patient with HCQ had transient AVB.ConclusionsIn summary, we identify that the HCQ/CQ administration is not related to less mortality cases at later phase of COVID-19. More studies are needed to explore whether HCQ/CQ treatment would lead to SARS-Cov-2 RNA clearance delay or not.
Highlights
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, several therapeutic agents have been used in COVID-19 management
The SARS-Cov-2 infection results in the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), which is composed of a spectrum of clinical manifestations including pneumonia, heart/kidney/liver injury, and coagulopathy, etc. [1, 2]
All the patients were confirmed with SARS-Cov-2 infection via polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
Summary
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, several therapeutic agents have been used in COVID-19 management. Since December 2019, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) infection has swept over the whole world in a few months. The SARS-Cov-2 infection results in the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), which is composed of a spectrum of clinical manifestations including pneumonia, heart/kidney/liver injury, and coagulopathy, etc. Due to lacking of specific anti-virus drugs, the management of COVID-19 is still challenging. Chen et al BMC Infect Dis (2021) 21:805 anti-virus agents, i.e. Lopinavir/Ritonavir and Remdesivir, showed that these drugs were not that effective as we had expected in Chinese patients with COVID-19 [3, 4]. Some researchers hypothesized that patients with COVID-19 might benefit from some antirheumatic drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)/ chloroquine (CQ) and tocilizumab (TCZ), for their dual effects on immune regulation and suppression [6]
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