efficacy of intravenous immunoglobulin therapy in hospitalised patients with covid-19: a randomized controlled trial

Objectives: acute respiratory distress syndrome (ards) is one of the life-threatening complications of covid-19. the occurrence of ards is due to over activation of the host immune response to the virus. the purpose of this study is to investigate whether administration of intravenous immunoglobulins (ivig) could enhance the outcomes of sever ill covid-19 patients with ards.methods: in this randomized controlled trial in milad hospital of isfahan, iran, 88 patients randomly were assigned between may to october 2020. the patients had no significant differences in age and sex. the patients divided in two groups: the group who received ivig and routine treatment (n=44, 50%) and the control group who just treated with routine treatment (n=44, 50%). the outcomes of patients including hospitalization duration, icu admission period and total death occurrence besides clinical and laboratory parameters were fallowed and compared between two groups.results: primary outcomes of patients including hospitalization duration (p=0.18), icu admission period (p= 0.35), and mortality (p=0.621) had no significant difference between ivig group and the control group. at day 3 and day 5 of ivig administration, clinical and laboratory outcomes had been screened. the clinical parameter that improved was oxygen saturation compared to the control group (87.56 ± 6.72 vs. 86.72 ± 7.52). in cardiovascular system ivig significantly decreased the diastolic blood pressure (p= 0.02). in terms of coagulation parameters ivig treatment decreased ptt while it increased d-dimer but no effect on platelet count and pt have been seen. the inflammatory parameters include esr, crp, and il6 had no superior changes between ivig group and the control group. conclusion: our study demonstrated that there were no superior advantages in covid-19 patients with ards who treated with ivig.