A Houston-area hospital became the first hospital in the US to
transfuse blood plasma of a recovered COVID-19 patient into one that is
critically ill, an experimental therapy that could be used in the fight
against the novel coronavirus.
The Houston Chronicle reported that
Houston Methodist Hospital transfused the plasma on Saturday night,
noting the individual who donated the plasma had been in good health for
more than two weeks. The procedure, known as convalescent serum
therapy, dates back more than 100 years and was first used in the
Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and subsequent other outbreaks of
infectious diseases during the 20th century.
“Here at Houston Methodist, we have the capability, the expertise and
the patient base from our health care system and we feel obligated to
try this therapy,” said Houston Methodist president and CEO Marc Boom in a statement.
“There is so much to be learned about this disease while it’s
occurring,” Boom added. “If an infusion of convalescent serum can help
save the life of a critically ill patient, then applying the full
resources of our blood bank, our expert faculty and our academic medical
center is incredibly worthwhile and important to do.”
The hospital started recruiting donors from approximately 250
patients who have tested positive for COVID-19. Recruitment started as
soon as the F.D.A. announced regulatory guidelines for the study last
week, according to the statement.
“Convalescent serum therapy could be a vital treatment route because
unfortunately there is relatively little to offer many patients except
supportive care and the ongoing clinical trials are going to take a
while,” Dr. Eric Salazar, a physician scientist and principal
investigator at the Methodist’s Research Institute, added in the
statement. “We don’t have that much time.”
A second patient received a transfusion on Sunday, Salazar told the
Chronicle, while adding it is “too early” to know if the transfusions
are benefiting the patients.
Donating plasma is similar to donating blood, where donors are hooked
up to a device that extracts the plasma and returns red blood cells
into their bodies simultaneously. The process often takes about an hour
and can be done more frequently than blood donations.
The news comes after a trial of five patients in China were aided in
their recovery from COVID-19 to varying degrees. The patients, who were
between the ages of 36 and 65, including two women, received an
experimental plasma transfusion that contained a “neutralizing
antibody,” Fox News previously reported.
All five were on ventilators at the time of treatment and had previously received “antiviral agents and methylprednisolone.”
After they received the plasma transfusion, four of the five patients
had body temperatures return to normal “within three days,” their
Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score decreased and the ratio
of arterial oxygen partial pressure to fractional inspired oxygen (also
known as the PaO2/FiO2 ratio or Carrico index and the PF ratio)
increased within 12 days.
Four of the five patients saw their acute respiratory issues resolve
within 12 days after receiving the plasma transfusion and three of them
were taken off ventilators within two weeks of treatment. Three patients
were eventually discharged and the other two are in stable condition.
The study of the Chinese-based patients was published after New York State recently announced it too would attempt to fight the pandemic using the blood plasma of recovered patients.
During a March 23 press conference, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said
the blood therapy trial, which is aimed at coronavirus patients who are
in the most serious condition, would start that week.
A Mount Sinai spokesperson told Fox News the hospital also initiated
its convalescence plasma program on Saturday evening, “giving plasma to
our first patient.”
As of Monday afternoon, more than 745,000 coronavirus cases have been
diagnosed worldwide, more than 144,000 of which are in the US.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/31/houston-coronavirus-patients-first-in-us-to-try-experimental-plasma-transfusion/
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