Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness
June 4, 2020
Effect of Convalescent Plasma Therapy on Time to Clinical Improvement in Patients With Severe and Life-Threatening COVID-19: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Category: Article Summary
Topic: Testing and Treatment
- Li et al. conducted a multicenter randomized trial of convalescent plasma therapy among 103 participants with “severe” or “life-threatening” COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. The trial was stopped early, which resulted in insufficient power to fully evaluate the primary outcomes.
- Overall, there were no statistically significant differences in clinical improvement within 28 days between those who did and did not receive convalescent plasma. However, an accompanying editorial points to promising trends among those who received convalescent plasma. This is particularly true of the finding that among those with “severe” disease (as opposed to the more serious group with “life-threatening” disease) clinical improvement occurred within 28 days among 91.3% (21/23) of those who receive convalescent plasma compared to 68.2% (15/22) of those in the control group (p=0.03).
Li et al. (June 3, 2020). Effect of Convalescent Plasma Therapy on Time to Clinical Improvement in Patients With Severe and Life-Threatening COVID-19: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.10044