The first conclusions could be known in a few weeks.

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, based in Lyon, launched in April a clinical trial called “CovidEp” based on the renewal of the plasma of patients with severe forms of Covid-19 in order to prevent them from intubation.

“The breathing difficulties of patients seem to be partly linked to a strong presence of inflammatory substances in the blood and to other infections.

We are trying to remove these abnormal substances for a few days so that the patient can overcome this hyperinflammation, ”explains Dr Olivier Hequet, one of the study coordinators.

Patients on "optiflow"

The protocol is intended for voluntary patients suffering from moderate respiratory distress, and placed under "optiflow", a very high flow rate pulmonary oxygenation technique, less invasive than the intubation that it seeks to remove.

At the rate of one-and-a-half-hour sessions, three days in a row, three liters of plasma (the liquid part of the blood) are withdrawn and replaced in the body of patients with plasma from healthy donors.

“There is a whole bunch of inflammatory, coagulation and immunity substances in their plasma, which are completely disorganized.

The idea is to remove at least 60% at each session, ”describes Olivier Hequet.

“It is believed that these abnormal substances are also fixed in the tissues.

The hypothesis is that removing them from the blood on the first day will attract those lodged in these tissues back to the blood.

The repeated sessions will make it possible to eliminate them better, ”continues this specialist in clinical immunology.

The primary endpoint of the trial will be the intubation rate ten days after the start of the transfusions.

The patient's respiratory state in the short term, his immunity and his longer term prognosis will also be examined.

Conducted in partnership with the Hospices Civils de Lyon but also private establishments in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region as well as a resuscitation service at La Pitié-Salpêtrière, the clinical trial is still in the start-up phase and hopes to present intermediate results. by early summer.

An independent scientific and medical committee will validate the conclusions.

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