Plasma therapy helpful only in moderate Covid cases, says study

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 22

Convalescent Plasma Therapy (CPT), said to be helpful in treating Covid patients, has proved useful only for patients in moderate stage of illness. No significant benefit of plasma therapy has been seen in critically ill patients. Earlier this week, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had advised against the indiscriminate use of plasma therapy. However, no blanket ban has been imposed on it.

In Punjab, nearly 100 patients have been treated with plasma therapy, half of whom were given treatment at Ludhiana.

Dr Bishav Mohan, senior cardiologist at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), also a member of the Covid-19 task force formed by the state government, said the required concentration of IgG antibody against Covid-19 in the potential donor should be Titre of 1:640 (ELISA) or 13 AU (Absorbance Unit)/mL9 (CLIA) or Neutralising Antibody Titres of 1:80 (PRNT/MNT).

Convalescent plasma having low concentration of specific antibody against SARS-CoV-2 may be less beneficial for treating patients, as compared to plasma with high concentration of such antibodies. A potential donor for convalescent plasma should have sufficient concentration of antibody working against Covid- 19. Presence of antibody in a potential recipient makes transfusing convalescent plasma a futile intervention, he maintained.

“Relatives often force for plasma therapy and sometimes, it becomes difficult for us to make them understand that it would not be beneficial as there is a general perception that plasma therapy helps in treating critically ill patients. The reality, however, is that therapy does not give results in critically ill patients, only moderate cases have benefitted from it,” Dr Mohan added.

The ICMR conducted an open label phase II multicentre randomised controlled trial in India across 39 public and private hospitals on use of convalescent plasma in the management of cases with moderate Covid-19 disease (PLACID Trial). It was concluded that CPT did not reduce the progression to sever Covid-19 or all cause mortality in the group that received CPT as compared to the group that did not receive CPT4.

Similar studies conducted in China and Netherlands have also documented no significant benefit of CPT in improving the clinical outcomes of hospitalised Covid-19 patients.