Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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INFLUENCE OF TOCILIZUMAB ON THE OUTCOME OF PATIENTS WITH COVID-19. RETROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

EUGENIA IRENE DAVIDESCU 1,2*, IRINA ODAJIU 1, MIRELA DUMITRIȚA ILIE 1, TEODORA BUNEA 1, GEORGIANA SANDU 1, LAURENȚIU STRATAN 2,4, NICOLETA IFTODE 4, VICTORIA ARAMĂ 2,4, BOGDAN OVIDIU POPESCU 1,2,3

1.Neurology Department, Colentina Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania
2.“Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
3.Laboratory of Cell Biology, Neurosciences and Experimental Myology, “Victor Babeș” National Institute of Pathology, Bucharest, Romania
4.“Matei Balș” National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Bucharest, Romania

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Cytokine storm seems to be one of the main culprits for developing a severe form of COVID-19, IL-6 being one of its basic components. Therefore, currently, tocilizumab is widely studied as a powerful treatment in patients with severe forms of COVID-19. Our aim was to determine whether it could potentiate a favourable outcome in such patients. We conducted a retrospective observational study including all consecutive admitted patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection that received treatment with tocilizumab in the period between 01.05-23.08.2020 in “Matei Balș” National Institute for Infectious Diseases and Neurology Department of the Colentina Clinical Hospital in Bucharest, Romania. 22 patients were enrolled with a severe form of COVID-19, predominantly women, with an average age of of 61.72 ± 14.5 years. The fatality rate was 31.81%. It was observed that following tocilizumab administration, patients presented improvement in the majority of the studied parameters, statistically significant in the case of fibrinogen, C reactive protein and blood oxygen level (p < 0.05). Tocilizumab might be regarded as a valuable drug in the management of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.