Steroids after Severe COVID Reduces One-year Mortality by 51%

Researchers have shown that severe inflammation during hospitalisation for COVID increases post-recovery mortality risk by 61% – but this risk is reduced again by 51% if anti-inflammatory steroids are prescribed upon discharge. We need to think of COVID as a potentially chronic disease that requires long-term management, argue the authors, whose results are published in Frontiers in Medicine.

Evidence continues to gather that ‘long COVID’, that is, continued negative health impacts months after apparent recovery from severe COVID, is an important risk for some patients. For example, researchers showed last December that hospitalised patients who seemingly recovered from severe COVID run more than double the risk of dying within the next year, compared to those with only mild COVID or who never had COVID.

Now, the same research team shows that among patients hospitalised for COVID who seemingly recovered, severe systemic inflammation during their hospitalisation is a risk factor for death within one year.

“Here we show that the stronger the inflammation during the initial hospitalisation, the greater the probability that the patient will die within 12 months after seemingly ‘recovering’ from COVID.”

Professor Arch G Mainous III

“COVID is known to create inflammation, particularly during the first, acute episode. Our study is the first to examine the relationship between inflammation during hospitalisation for COVID and mortality after the patient has ‘recovered’,” said first author Professor Arch G Mainous III at the University of Florida Gainesville.

“Here we show that the stronger the inflammation during the initial hospitalisation, the greater the probability that the patient will die within 12 months after seemingly ‘recovering’ from COVID.”

Prof Mainous and colleagues analysed electronic health records of 1207 adults hospitalised with COVID in 2020 or 2021 within the University of Florida health system, with at least a one year follow-up after discharge. As a proxy for the severity of systemic inflammation during hospitalisation, they used a common and validated measure: C-reactive protein (CRP), secreted by the liver in response to a signal by active immune cells.

Widespread inflammation in the body

As expected, the blood concentration of CRP during hospitalisation was strongly correlated with the severity of COVID: 59.4mg/L for patients not needing supplemental oxygen, 126.9 mg/L for those who needed extra oxygen without mechanical ventilation, and 201.2 mg/L for the most severe cases, who required ventilation through a ventilator or through ECMO.

After correcting for risk factors, patients with the highest CRP concentration measured their during their hospital stay had a 61% greater risk of all-cause mortality within one year of discharge than patients with the lowest CRP concentration.

Prof Mainous said: “Many infectious diseases are accompanied by an increase in inflammation. Most times the inflammation is focused or specific to where the infection is. COVID is different because it creates inflammation in many places besides the airways, for example in the heart, brain, and kidneys. High degrees of inflammation can lead to tissue damage.”

Importantly, the authors showed that the increased all-cause mortality risk associated with severe inflammation was reduced again by 51% if the patient was prescribed anti-inflammatory steroids after their hospitalisation.

These results mean that the severity of inflammation during hospitalisation for COVID can predict the risk of subsequent serious health problems, including death, from ‘long COVID’. They also imply that current recommendations for best practice may need to be changed, to include more widespread prescription of orally taken steroids to COVID patients upon their discharge.

COVID as a chronic disease?

The authors propose that COVID should be seen as a potentially chronic disease.

“When someone has a cold or even pneumonia, we usually think of the illness being over once the patient recovers. This is different from a chronic disease, like congestive heart failure or diabetes, which continue to affect patients after an acute episode. We may similarly need to start thinking of COVID as having ongoing effects in many parts of the body after patients have recovered from the initial episode,” said Prof Mainous.

“Once we recognise the importance of ‘long Covid’ after seeming ‘recovery’, we need to focus on treatments to prevent later problems, such as strokes, brain dysfunction, and especially premature death.”

Source: Frontiers