Tocilizumab in Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia and Concomitant Cytokine Release Syndrome

oleh: Tom van Kraaij, Rémy Mostard, Sofia Ramiro, Cesar Magro Checa, Christel van Dongen, Eric HJ van Haren, Jacqueline Buijs, Robert Landewé

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: SMC MEDIA SRL 2020-04-01

Deskripsi

Younger patients with COVID-19 may experience an exaggerated immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and develop cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which may be life threatening. There is no proven antiviral therapy for COVID-19 so far, but profound immunosuppression has recently been suggested as a treatment for COVID-19-associated CRS. We present a case of life-threatening CRS caused by COVID-19 infection with a favourable response to immunosuppressive therapy with tocilizumab (TCZ). The rapid clinical and biochemical improvement following TCZ administration suggests that treatment with immunotherapy can be life-saving in selected patients with COVID-19-induced CRS.