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
. 2020;5(1):17.
doi: 10.1186/s41231-020-00068-9. Epub 2020 Oct 12.

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients treated with convalescent plasma in a mid-size city in the Midwest

William R Hartman  1 , Aaron S Hess  1   2 , Joseph P Connor  2
Affiliations

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients treated with convalescent plasma in a mid-size city in the Midwest

William R Hartman et al. Transl Med Commun. 2020.

Abstract

Background: SARS-CoV-2 and its associated disease, COVID-19, has infected over seven million people world-wide, including two million people in the United States. While many people recover from the virus uneventfully, a subset of patients will require hospital admission, some with intensive care needs including intubation, and mechanical ventilation. To date there is no cure and no vaccine is available. Passive immunotherapy by the transfusion of convalescent plasma donated by COVID-19 recovered patients might be an effective option to combat the virus, especially if used early in the course of disease. Here we report our experience of using convalescent plasma at a tertiary care center in a mid-size, midwestern city that did not experience an overwhelming patient surge.

Methods: Hospitalized COVID-19 patients categorized as having Severe or Life-Threatening disease according to the Mayo Clinic Emergency Access Protocol were screened, consented, and treated with convalescent plasma collected from local donors recovered from COVID-19 infection. Clinical data and outcomes were collected retrospectively.

Results: 31 patients were treated, 16 severe patients and 15 life-threatened patients. Overall mortality was 27% (4/31) but only patients with life-threatening disease died. 94% of transfused patients with severe disease avoided escalation to ICU care and mechanical ventilation. 67% of patients with life-threatening disease were able to be extubated. Most transfused patients had a rapid decrease in their respiratory support requirements on or about day 7 following convalescent plasma transfusion.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that convalescent plasma is associated with reducing ventilatory requirements in patients with both severe and life-threatening disease, but appears to be most beneficial when administered early in the course of disease when patients meet the criteria for severe illness.

Keywords: COVID-19; Case series; Convalescent plasma; Midwest; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare they have no competing interests in the publication of this report.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Legend: Inpatient respiratory support type by hospital day among COVID-19 patients with life-threatening disease receiving convalescent plasma (n = 15). The asterisk (*) marks that three patients were excluded from the tally because their final respiratory status is not known. At the time of last follow-up, two were on mechanical ventilation and one was on high-flow nasal cannula
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Legend: Inpatient respiratory support type by hospital day among COVID-19 patients with severe disease receiving convalescent plasma (n = 16). The asterisk (*) marks that two patients were excluded from the tally because their final respiratory status was not known. At the time of last follow-up, one was on mechanical ventilation and one was on low-flow nasal cannula
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Update of

References

    1. https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/investigational-new-drug-in.... Accessed 3 Apr 2020.
    1. Zhou F, Yu T, Du R, et al. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet. 2020;395(10229):1038. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30566-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Casadevall A, Pirofski L. J Clin Invest. 2020;130(4):1545–1548. doi: 10.1172/JCI138003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. MarShen C, Wang Z, Zhao F, et al. Treatment of 5 critically ill patients with COVID-19 with convalescent plasma. JAMA. 2020;323(16):1582–1589. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.4783. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hess AS, Connor J, Roginski C, Hesse K, Weiss JW, Hartman W. Rapid development and refinement of a COVID-19 convalescent plasma donor recruitment and screening program. Abstract submitted to the American Association of Blood Banks Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland; 2020, October 3-6.

LinkOut - more resources