Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2020 Oct;59(5):102820.
doi: 10.1016/j.transci.2020.102820. Epub 2020 May 21.

Successful treatment of a centenarian with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) using convalescent plasma

Yujie Kong  1 , Chen Cai  2 , Li Ling  1 , Li Zeng  3 , Meihong Wu  4 , Yanyun Wu  5 , Wei Zhang  6 , Zhong Liu  7
Affiliations
Case Reports

Successful treatment of a centenarian with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) using convalescent plasma

Yujie Kong et al. Transfus Apher Sci. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Because treatment options for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are very limited, the use of convalescent plasma has bee explored.

Case presentation and treatment: A male centenarian with cough and dyspnea for 2 months was diagnosed with COVID-19. Without effective treatments and with the increased risks of antiviral therapy for the elderly, this patient was given convalescent plasma. The viral load, complete blood count, inflammatory indicators, vital signs, and clinical symptoms were observed before and after COVID-19 convalescent plasma transfusion.

Results: After convalescent plasma transfusion, significant improvement was observed on laboratory indicators and clinical symptoms of the patient. Concurrently, SARS-CoV-2 viral load decreased sharply after the first transfusion (from 2.55 × 104 to 1.39 × 103 copies/mL) and became undetectable after the second transfusion.

Conclusions: With the substantial increase of COVID-19 in recent months,treatment for elderly patients has become restricted in some countries. The successful treatment of this 100-year-old patient using convalescent plasma suggests that we should consider adding convalescent plasma in th management of the elderly.

Keywords: Coronavirus Disease 2019; convalescent plasma; transfusion.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Clinical indicators of the patient during admission. (A) The body temperature of the patient during admission. (B) The viral load of the patient during admission. (C) The absolute value of white blood cell, neutrophil and lymphocyte of the patient during admission. (D) The concentration of C-reactive protein of the patient during admission. (E) The concentration of IL-6 of the patient during admission. Arrows show the times when convalescent plasma was transfused.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. CDC COVID-19 Response Team Severe outcomes among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) — United States, February 12–March 16, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(12):343–346. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guan W.J., Ni Z.Y., Hu Y. Clinical characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in China. N Engl J Med. 2020 doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2002032. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Huang C., Wang Y., Li X. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):497–506. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Garraud Olivier. Use of convalescent plasma in Ebola virus infection. Transfusion and apheresis science. 2017;56(1):31–34. - PubMed
    1. Choi S., Kim Mc, Kwon Js. Case Report: Use of Plasma Exchange Followed by Convalescent Plasma Therapy in a Critically Ill Patient with Severe Fever and Thrombocytopenia Syndrome–Associated Encephalopathy: Cytokine/Chemokine Concentrations, Viral Loads, and Antibody Responses. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2018;99(6):1466–1468. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types