According to the group on the Borna media line; An international team of researchers led by immunologists and Dalhousie intensive care specialists in Spain have found key biomarkers in the plasma of coronary patients that help predict disease severity and could lead to new treatments for the virus.
The findings, published Tuesday in the journal Critical Care, included 250 patients with coronary artery disease who were tested for the presence of plasma ribonucleic acid, or RNA, the genetic map of the virus in Spain.
More than 30 research hospitals in the country were involved in assessing the plasma viral load of three groups of patients with varying degrees of disease during the first wave of the epidemic in Spain from March 16 to April 15, 2020.
The team found that 78 percent of critically ill patients had higher levels of viral RNA than mildly ill patients. Those who died had the highest concentrations of viral RNA in plasma, leading researchers to conclude that the presence of RNA in a patient’s blood was associated with a critical illness.
Dr. Kelvin (shown on the left) says the study could help identify patients in the emergency department of busy hospitals who need urgent and intensive care, as well as people who can go home.
“There is a very reliable indicator for identifying severe Crohn’s patients who need intensive care and need to be admitted to the ICU, which helps intensive care physicians prioritize critically ill patients,” says Dr. Kelvin. Give.
Dr. Kelvin says he and his colleagues are working with a large pharmaceutical company to provide a rapid test that can take 15 minutes to determine if a positive RNA patient has the virus and what level of care he or she needs. . Such a device can be a valuable asset as the number of approved cases and continued hospitalization continues, especially in the United States.
“The number of people reporting severe illness is steadily rising,” said Dr. Theresa Tom, senior director of public health in Canada.
He added that last week, an average of 3,020 people with Covid 19 were treated in Canadian hospitals, with more than 600 receiving intensive care. Especially in recent weeks, several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, have seen a significant increase in hospitalizations.
“The importance of this study is that it allows the patients who are most in need of ICU admissions to be identified,” says Dr. Kelvin.
On the other hand, the team also discovered that the presence of RNA is directly related to an inefficient immune response. This may prevent severe patients from being able to fight Covid 19 infection, in part due to increased levels of certain proteins.
Identifying these patients also helps identify people who can be treated with new treatments such as antibody cocktails.
“We are also trying to understand why there are viral components in the blood and how this can lead to immune system dysfunction and severe illness,” he said. We now have several clues and we hope to be able to develop new treatments to help treat severely ill patients.
Source: Innovators newspaper