Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 6, 2021; 9(25): 7350-7357
Published online Sep 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i25.7350
Efficacy of arbidol in COVID-19 patients: A retrospective study
Shuo Wei, Sha Xu, Yun-Hu Pan
Shuo Wei, Department of Infectious Diseases, Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350000, Fujian Province, China
Sha Xu, Department of Infectious Diseases, Jinyintan Hospital, Wuhan 430000, Hubei Province, China
Yun-Hu Pan, Department of Respiratory Medicine, 907 Hospital of the Joint Logistics Team, Nanping 353000, Fujian Province, China
Author contributions: Wei S contributed to study conception and design, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation, funding acquisition, and article drafting; Pan YH contributed to the conception and design of the study; Xu S contributed to the acquisition of the data; and all authors gave final approval for the version to be submitted.
Supported by the Fujian Medical University Sailing Fund, No. 2016QH121.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the institutional ethics board of Jinyintan Hospital (No. KY-2020-71.01).
Informed consent statement: The ethics committee waived the requirement for written informed patient consent, because this was a retrospective study based on the assessment of medical records.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest for this manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yun-Hu Pan, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Respiratory Medicine, 907 Hospital of the Joint Logistics Team, No. 99 Binjiang North Road, Nanping 353000, Fujian Province, China. 18750975908@163.com
Received: March 18, 2021
Peer-review started: March 18, 2021
First decision: April 23, 2021
Revised: May 3, 2021
Accepted: July 14, 2021
Article in press: July 14, 2021
Published online: September 6, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND

To date, no treatment has proven to be absolutely effective for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, and further research is necessary. As a traditional antiviral drug, arbidol was widely used in Wuhan at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic and is of increasing interest for treating COVID-19 based on in vitro data suggesting activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Although arbidol has been widely used in China to treat COVID-19 patients, clinical trials to date have not clearly substantiated this approach.

AIM

To evaluate the efficacy of arbidol for COVID-19.

METHODS

A retrospective study was conducted on 132 moderate and severe COVID-19 patients admitted to Jinyintan Hospital and Huoshenshan Hospital (officially designated for COVID-19 treatment) from February to March 2020 in Wuhan, China. This study mainly evaluated the efficacy of arbidol in patients with COVID-19 in the early stage of the SARS coronavirus 2 epidemic. Arbidol was administered at a dose of 200 mg, three times a day, with a 10-d course to adults not receiving any other drugs. Due to the shortage of beds at the time, not every patient could be admitted immediately. We looked for the early stages of the sudden outbreak, places of limited medical resources, limited ward beds, and delayed admission; thus, some patients naturally fit into the control group who did not receive any antiviral drugs. Out of the 132 patients, 72 received arbidol treatment, and 60 did not. We compared the disease course of the two groups and explored the predictors of extended disease duration.

RESULTS

Seventy-two patients commenced arbidol, and 60 patients did not receive arbidol treatment. The disease duration in the former group was shorter (23.42 ± 6.92 vs 29.60 ± 6.49, P < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis showed that the risk of a prolonged course of disease increased by 7.158 times in the non-arbidol treatment group. Ferritin > 483.0 ng/mL and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) > 237.5 U/L were found to be independent risk factors for protracted cases, with the risk of an extended disease duration increasing to 2.852 times and 5.946 times, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The duration course of moderate and severe COVID-19 patients is reduced by 6.183 d when arbidol is administered. Ferritin > 486.5 ng/mL and LDH > 239.5 U/L are independent risk factors for delayed recovery from COVID-19. Early oral administration of arbidol 200 mg t.i.d. with a 10-d course of treatment may be an effective management strategy in COVID-19 patients, particularly those with increased serum ferritin or elevated LDH.

Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Arbidol, Treatment, Antiviral

Core Tip: This study indicated that the duration course of moderate and severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is reduced by 6.183 d when arbidol is administered. Ferritin > 486.5 ng/mL and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) > 239.5 U/L are independent risk factors for delayed recovery from COVID-19. Early oral administration of arbidol 200 mg t.i.d. with a 10-d course of treatment may be an effective management strategy in COVID-19 patients, particularly those with increased serum ferritin or elevated LDH.