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Observational Study
. 2023 Mar 18;13(1):4482.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-31544-5.

Remdesivir and corticosteroids in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Luís Coelho  1   2 , Fatima Falcão  3   4 , Pedro Póvoa  5   6   7 , Erica Viegas  3   4 , Antonio Pais Martins  8 , Eduarda Carmo  9 , Candida Fonseca  6   10 , Luis Campos  6   10 , Kamal Mansinho  6   11 , Inês Carmo  3 , Joana Soares  3 , Mariana Solano  3 , Dina Mendes  3 , Ana Cláudia Miranda  11 , Antonio Carvalho  10   12 , Ana Mirco  4   12 , Helena Farinha  4   12 , Isabel Aldir  6   11   12 , José Correia  12
Affiliations
Observational Study

Remdesivir and corticosteroids in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Luís Coelho et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic infection caused by the newly discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Remdesivir (RDV) and corticosteroids are used mainly in COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory failure. The main objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of remdesivir with and without corticosteroids in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. We conducted a prospective observational study, including adult patients consecutively hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 and acute respiratory failure. Patients were divided according to treatment strategy: RDV alone versus RDV with corticosteroids. The primary outcome was the time to recovery in both treatment groups. We included 374 COVID-19 adult patients, 184 were treated with RDV, and 190 were treated with RDV and corticosteroid. Patients in the RDV group had a shorter time to recovery in comparison with patients in the RDV plus corticosteroids group at 28 days after admission [11 vs. 16 days (95% confidence Interval 9.7-12.8; 14.9-17.1; p = .016)]. Patients treated with RDV alone had a shorter length of hospital stay. The use of corticosteroids as adjunctive therapy of RDV was not associated with improvement in mortality of COVID-19 patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patient distribution.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier Survival curves of patients treated with remdesivir and the association of remdesivir and corticosteroids adjusted for WHO Ordinal Scale severity and comorbidities.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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