Metformin Use in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: Lower Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Thrombotic Risk Markers and Better Clinical Outcomes
Bliden et al., Circulation, 144:A12228, Nov 2021
Retrospective 75 diabetes patients, 34 on metformin, showing lower mortality with treatment in unadjusted results with minimal group details.
Standard of Care (SOC) for COVID-19 in the study country,
the USA, is
very poor with
very low average efficacy for approved treatments
1.
Only expensive, high-profit treatments were approved. Low-cost treatments were excluded, reducing the probability of treatment—especially early—due to access and cost barriers, and eliminating complementary and synergistic benefits seen with many low-cost treatments.
This may explain in part the very high mortality seen in this study.
Results may differ in countries with improved SOC.
This study is excluded in the after exclusion results of meta
analysis:
unadjusted results with minimal group details.
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risk of death, 59.8% lower, RR 0.40, p = 0.21, treatment 3 of 34 (8.8%), control 9 of 41 (22.0%), NNT 7.6.
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risk of mechanical ventilation, 75.9% lower, RR 0.24, p = 0.05, treatment 2 of 34 (5.9%), control 10 of 41 (24.4%), NNT 5.4.
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Effect extraction follows pre-specified rules prioritizing more serious outcomes. Submit updates
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Bliden et al., 8 Nov 2021, retrospective, USA, preprint, 9 authors.
