Hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and methylprednisolone and in hospital survival in severe COVID-19 pneumonia
Ronaldo C Go, Themba Nyirenda
Frontiers in Pharmacology, doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.935370
Introduction: Severe COVID-19 pneumonia has two phases that are not mutually exclusive. Repurposed drugs target only one phase and the association of combination therapy to survival is unknown. Objective: To determine the association of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and methylprednisolone versus methylprednisolone only to in hospital survival. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a retrospective cohort of patients admitted for severe covid-19 in 13 hospitals in New Jersey, United States from March-June 2020. Propensity score match with 11 variables was constructed between those who received no methylprednisolone and methylprednisolone. Multivariate Cox regression was used for risk of in hospital mortality. Measurements and main results: There were 759 patients, 380 in no methylprednisolone and 379 with methylprednisolone. Multivariate Cox regression shows that methylprednisolone, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin had prolonged survival compared to methylprednisolone alone [HR 0.45 (95% CI 0.22,0.91 p < 0.03)]. In patients who received hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, those who also received high dose methylprednisolone were associated with worse survival compared to those who received low dose methylprednisolone (HR = 1.642; 95% CI 1.053 to 2.562; p = 0.0287). Nursing home residents [HR 2.77 (95% CI 1.67, 4.59 p < 0.0001)], coronary artery disease [HR 2.93 (95% CI 1.31, 3.15 p = 0.001), and invasive mechanical ventilation [HR 3.02 (95% CI 1.71,5.34 p = 0.0001)] were independently associated with worse survival.
Ethics statement The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Hackensack Meridian Health Institutional Review Board. Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.
Author contributions RG developed the concept, performed data entry, analysis and wrote most of the manuscript. TN performed the statistics and wrote some of the manuscript.
Conflict of interest RG receiving consulting fees to participate in research design on long term follow-up in COVID-19 sponsored by Hoffmann LaRoche -Genentech. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher's note All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Supplementary material The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar. 2022.935370/full#supplementary-material
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