HealthDay News — Monoclonal antibody therapy seems to be beneficial for solid organ transplant recipients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, according to a study published online in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
Zachary A. Yetmar, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues conducted a retrospective review of solid organ transplant recipients who received monoclonal antibody infusion for COVID-19 through Jan. 23, 2021. Data were included for 73 patients (63% male) with a median age of 59 years.
The researchers found that the patients were most often treated with bamlanivimab (75.3%). Within 28 days of infusion, 11 patients (15.1%) had an emergency department visit, including 9 (12.3%) who were hospitalized for a median of 4 days. Intensive care unit admission for a nonrespiratory complication was necessary for 1 patient. None of the patients required mechanical ventilation, there were no deaths, and no patient experienced rejection. There were 10 adverse events; one required medical evaluation. There was an association for hypertension with hospital admission, but other baseline characteristics were similar. Symptom onset to antibody administration was a median of 4 and 6 days in nonhospitalized and hospitalized patients, respectively.
Continue Reading
“Monoclonal antibody therapy is really important for the transplant population because they are less likely to develop their own immunity,” a coauthor said in a statement. “Providing them with these antibodies helps them recover from COVID-19.”
This article originally appeared on Infectious Disease Advisor
