Safety of High-Dose Vitamin C in Non-Intensive Care Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: An Open-Label Clinical Study
Kiriakos Karkoulias, Dimosthenis Lykouras, Salvatore Corrao, Massimo Raspanti, Federi Agugliaro, Francesco Gervasi, Francesca Di Bernardo, Giuseppe Natoli, Christiano Argano, Internal Medicine, Igr Covid-19 Investigators
doi:10.3390/jcm13133987
Background: Vitamin C has been used as an antioxidant and has been proven effective in boosting immunity in different diseases, including coronavirus disease ). An increasing awareness was directed to the role of intravenous vitamin C in COVID-19. Methods: In this study, we aimed to assess the safety of high-dose intravenous vitamin C added to the conventional regimens for patients with different stages of COVID-19. An open-label clinical trial was conducted on patients with COVID-19. One hundred four patients underwent high-dose intravenous administration of vitamin C (in addition to conventional therapy), precisely 10 g in 250 cc of saline solution in slow infusion (60 drops/min) for three consecutive days. At the same time, 42 patients took the standardof-care therapy. Results: This study showed the safety of high-dose intravenous administration of vitamin C. No adverse reactions were found. When we evaluated the renal function indices and estimated the glomerular filtration rate (eGRF, calculated with the CKD-EPI Creatinine Equation) as the main side effect and contraindication related to chronic renal failure, no statistically significant differences between the two groups were found. High-dose vitamin C treatment was not associated with a statistically significant reduction in mortality and admission to the intensive care unit, even if the result was bound to the statistical significance. On the contrary, age was independently associated with admission to the intensive care unit and in-hospital mortality as well as noninvasive ventilation (N.I.V.) and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1. OR 7.50, OR 8.84, respectively). When considering the length of hospital stay, treatment with high-dose vitamin C predicts shorter hospitalization (OR -4.95 CI -0.21--9.69). Conclusions: Our findings showed that an intravenous high dose of vitamin C is configured as a safe and promising therapy for patients with moderate to severe COVID-19.
Institutional Review Board Statement: The Ethics Committee has approved the conduct of the study at our institution. The approval number assigned to this study is 3143-2020. Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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