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
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

To date, no treatment has proven to be effective for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, and further research is necessary. Although arbidol has been widely used in China to treat COVID-19 patients, clinical trials to date have not clearly substantiated this approach.

Research motivation

This study mainly evaluated the efficacy of arbidol in patients with COVID-19 in the early stage of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 epidemic.

Research objectives

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of arbidol in COVID-19 patients.

Research methods

Out of the 132 patients, 72 received arbidol treatment, and 60 did not. The disease course of the two groups was compared, and the predictors of extended disease duration were identified.

Research results

The disease duration in the arbidol treatment group was shorter. 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.

Research conclusions

Abidol can shorten the course of COVID-19 in moderate and severe patients. Ferritin > 486.5 ng/mL and LDH > 239.5 U/L are independent risk factors for delayed recovery from COVID-19.

Research perspectives

Early administration of arbidol may be an effective management strategy in some COVID-19 patients, particularly those with increased serum ferritin or elevated LDH.