BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF TREATMENT WITH TOCILIZUMAB IN MODERATE TO CRITICALLY ILL COVID-19 PATIENTS

Introduction: COVID-19 virus initiates an inflammatory response in the body involving many cytokines. Interluukin-6 (IL-6) is one of them, elevated levels of which found to be directly related to morbidity and mortality of infected patients. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the clinical benefits of Tocilizumab, a monoclonal antibody against interleukin-6 receptor, as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of Coronavirus disease 2019. Methods: The current retrospective study was conducted at Bahria Town International hospital from rom May 1st to 5th July 2020. Total of one twenty (n=120) moderate to severely ill patients (94 males and 26 females), infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus, were included to assess the effect of TOCILIZUMAB in improvement of PF ratio and other biochemical variables of prognostic importance, including CRP, serum ferritin levels, D-dimers and LDH. These parameters were compared before and after the ten days of treatment with tocilizumab. Demographic, laboratory and clinical finding were recorded for the feather analyses.  Statistical analysis was performed by using software SPSS version 21.0. The Wilcoxon signed‐rank test used to compare parameters whenever appropriate. A P‐value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The results of our study showed statistically significant improvement in PF ratio and decrease in CRP levels. Other parameters such as D-Dimer, Serum ferritin levels and LDH showed no change before and after treatment with tocilizumab. Conclusion: In summary, TOCILIZUMAB improved the PF and CRP ratio in COVID-19 patients, but other markers did not improve in response to TOCILIZUMAB in critically ill COVID-19 patients.