Title:Convalescent Plasma the Experience and Journey from Blockbuster
to Incognito: A Single Centre Experience
Volume: 18
Issue: 3
Author(s): Gita Negi*, Daljit Kaur, Ashish Jain, Yatendra Kumar Mohan, Sushant Kumar Meinia, Pandeep Kaur, Prasan Kumar Panda, Deepjyoti Kalita and Ravikant
Affiliation:
- Department of Transfusion Medicine, AIIMS Rishikesh, Rishikesh, India
Keywords:
Convalescent plasma, COVID-19, pandemic, recovery, efficacy, immunoglobulin.
Abstract:
Background: Convalescent plasma has been used to provide passive immunotherapy
to patients with COVID-19 with a high level of safety. Very few efficacy studies
were available, and due to COVID being a relatively new disease, its exact therapeutic
role was unclear. This observational study on the impact of COVID convalescent plasma
(CCP) on clinical outcomes attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of convalescent
COVID-19 plasma therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 patients at the tertiary care
center in the Uttarakhand state of India.
Methods: CCP was collected by plasmapheresis/whole blood from willing COVIDrecovered
donors who underwent pre-donation testing including ABO and RhD grouping,
mandatory blood screening tests for HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis and Malaria, Haemoglobin
estimation and COVID IgG assay. Hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia
who received these CCP units were followed up and the outcome (Recovery/death) was
observed.
Results: A total of 63 patients who received CCP were included in the study. Out of the
total, 13 (20.7%) were females and 50 (79.3%) were males and their ages ranged from 24
to 80 years with a median age of 53 years. The period between the start of symptoms and
hospitalization ranged from 1 to 14 days with an average duration of 4.7 days. Symptoms
on presentation included Fever 53/63 (84.1%), Tachypnoea 60/63 (95.2%) and Cough
42/63 (66.7%). Among these patients, 22/63 (34.9%) were on non-invasive ventilation
(NIV), 6/63 (9.5%) on non-rebreather mask (NRBM) and 32/63 (50.8%) were on Ventilator
support. The infused convalescent plasma had a Mean IgG value of 57.3 AU with a
range of (10-142 AU). A total of 37 (58.7%) patients were lost to COVID-19 infection
and 26 (41.3%) were discharged from the hospital in a healthy state.
Conclusion: The use of convalescent plasma in addition to standard treatment in our
study on patients with severe pneumonia due to COVID-19 did not demonstrate reduced
mortality of COVID-19 patients amidst numerous variables. The results showed that the
use of convalescent plasma as a treatment option in the present conditions needs a serious
re-evaluation. Studies on a strictly defined recipient group and transfusion of CCP
units, with adequate antibody titer and/or neutralization activity, must be analyzed for
future works.
