According to new research, treating COVID patients with steroids to manage inflammation and stave off a cytokine storm may only be useful in patients with severe COVID.
Most patients with moderate to severe COVID in fact have a suppressed immune system, suggesting that treatment with steroids such as dexamethasone should only be applied to patients with most severe COVID. Severe COVID patients develop a hyperinflammatory reaction known as a cytokine storm.
The researchers measured cytokine levels in 168 adults with COVID, 26 with flu and 16 that were healthy volunteers. When dexamethasone or other steroids are administered to patients with already lowered immune system, they can backfire.
“We did identify a subset of Covid-19 patients with the broadly upregulated array of cytokines.. But, overall, the average person with Covid-19 had less inflammation than the average person with flu,” said study co-author Paul Thomas of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The study authors thus believe that steroids should only be directed at the small subset of COVID patients with an overactive immune response. What they say is an urgent requirement now is a fast, reliable and cheap test to measure cytokines, thereby identifying those patients that are likely to benefit from dexamethasone.
Source: Times of India
