Pilot trial of high-dose vitamin C in critically ill COVID-19 patients
Jing Zhang, Xin Rao, Yiming Li, Yuan Zhu, Fang Liu, Guangling Guo, Guoshi Luo, Zhongji Meng, Daniel De Backer, Hui Xiang, Zhiyong Peng
Annals of Intensive Care, doi:10.1186/s13613-020-00792-3
Background: Few specific medications have been proven effective for the treatment of patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 . Here, we tested whether high-dose vitamin C infusion was effective for severe COVID-19. Methods: This randomized, controlled, clinical trial was performed at 3 hospitals in Hubei, China. Patients with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the ICU were randomly assigned in as 1:1 ratio to either the high-dose intravenous vitamin C (HDIVC) or the placebo. HDIVC group received 12 g of vitamin C/50 ml every 12 h for 7 days at a rate of 12 ml/hour, and the placebo group received bacteriostatic water for injection in the same way within 48 h of arrival to ICU. The primary outcome was invasive mechanical ventilation-free days in 28 days (IMVFD28). Secondary outcomes were 28-day mortality, organ failure (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score), and inflammation progression (interleukin-6). Results: Only 56 critical COVID-19 patients were ultimately recruited due to the early control of the outbreak. There was no difference in IMVFD28 between two groups (26.0 [9.0-28.0] in HDIVC vs 22.0 [8.50-28.0] in control, p = 0.57). HDIVC failed to reduce 28-day mortality (P = 0.27). During the 7-day treatment period, patients in the HDIVC group had a steady rise in the PaO 2 /FiO 2 (day 7: 229 vs. 151 mmHg, 95% CI 33 to 122, P = 0.01), which was not observed in the control group. IL-6 in the HDIVC group was lower than that in the control group (19.42 vs. 158.00; 95% CI -301.72 to -29.79; P = 0.04) on day 7.
Conclusion: This pilot trial showed that HDIVC failed to improve IMVFD28, but might show a potential signal of benefit in oxygenation for critically ill patients with COVID-19 improving PaO2/FiO2 even though.
Authors' contributions Concept and design: JZ, XR, YL. Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: JZ, XR, YL, HX, GG, GL, ZM. Drafting of the manuscript: JZ, XR, YL, DB, ZP. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: JZ, XR, YL, DB, ZP. Statistical analysis: JZ, YZ, FL. Obtained funding: HX, ZP. Administrative, technical, or material support: HX, XR, ZP. Supervision: HX, DB, ZP. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Ethics approval and consent to participate This study is a multicenter, randomized trial, which was approved by the ethic committee of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University (#2020001). It was registered on the website of ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT04264533) before patient recruitment. Informed consents were obtained from the patients or family members.
Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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