Retrospective Study of Outcomes and Hospitalization Rates of Patients in Italy with a Confirmed Diagnosis of Early COVID-19 and Treated at Home Within 3 Days or After 3 Days of Symptom Onset with Prescribed and Non-Prescribed Treatments Between November 2020 and August 2021
Serafino Fazio, Paolo Bellavite, Elisabetta Zanolin, Peter A Mccullough, Sergio Pandolfi, Flora Affuso
Medical Science Monitor, doi:10.12659/msm.935379
Bellavite has a consultancy agreement with Vanda s.r.l. (Frascati, Rome), but he had no role in the treatments. Other authors have no competing interests to declare
Background: This retrospective study aimed to investigate outcomes and hospitalization rates in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of early COVID-19 treated at home with prescribed and non-prescribed treatments.
Material/Methods: The medical records of a cohort of 158 Italian patients with early COVID-19 treated at home were analyzed. Treatments consisted of indomethacin, low-dose aspirin, omeprazole, and a flavonoid-based food supplement, plus azithromycin, low-molecular-weight heparin, and betamethasone as needed. The association of treatment timeliness and of clinical variables with the duration of symptoms and with the risk of hospitalization was evaluated by logistic regression.
Results: Patients were divided into 2 groups: group 1 (n=85) was treated at the earliest possible time (<72 h from onset of symptoms), and group 2 (n=73) was treated >72 h after the onset of symptoms. Clinical severity at the beginning of treatment was similar in the 2 groups. In group 1, symptom duration was shorter than in group 2 (median 6.0 days vs 13.0 days, P<0.001) and no hospitalizations occurred, compared with 19.18% hospitalizations in group 2. One patient in group 1 developed chest X-ray alterations and 2 patients experienced an increase in D-dimer levels, compared with 30 and 22 patients, respectively, in group 2. The main factor determining the duration of symptoms and the risk of hospitalization was the delay in starting therapy (P<0.001).
Conclusions: This real-world study of patients in the community showed that early diagnosis and early supportive patient management reduced the severity of COVID-19 and reduced the rate of hospitalization.
Declaration of Figures' Authenticity All figures submitted have been created by the authors, who confirm that the images are original with no duplication and have not been previously published in whole or in part.
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