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Another observational study has been published supporting the idea that a heartburn drug helps improve clinical outcomes in patients with coronavirus.
Famotidine, which is used to treat heartburn and is commonly sold as Pepcid AC, has been associated with improved clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 according to a recent study from Hartford Hospital which has been accepted in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
“The main finding of our retrospective, single-center inpatient study of COVID-19 patients is that the use of famotidine is associated with improved clinical outcomes, including lower hospital mortality and a lower composite endpoint of death and / or intubation, ”study author Jeffrey F. Mather, of the research administration division at Hartford Hospital, said in a report.
Researchers have developed a database of all COVID-19 patients and their clinical information to answer questions about the medical results of their treatment for the coronavirus. The database allowed researchers to observe the effect of experiences on patients with other conditions and the effect of drugs on the course of the disease, academic affairs chief Rocco Orlando told Fox News. at Hartford Healthcare.
The famotidine in Pepcid, which is an acid-reducing drug, used in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, was associated with a lower risk of death, a lower risk of a combined outcome of death and intubation and at lower levels of severe disease effects in the blood. of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, he said.
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The research team found that treating patients with famotidine was associated with certain markers that are potential signs of severe forms of the virus, according to health experts.
According to reports on the study, another analysis found that famotidine worked well in coronavirus patients who had the highest national early warning scores, a measure that healthcare professionals use to determine the degree a patient’s illness and intensive care treatment intervention, health experts say. It is still under investigation into how this drug affects SARS-Cov-2, the scientific name for the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, according to reports.
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“There have been a few small observational studies and retrospective reviews that increase the potential benefit of Pepcid in early COVID disease.” Dr Ira Schmelkin, chief of the gastroenterology division at Baystate Health in Springfield, Massachusetts, told Fox News. “Early on, Chinese doctors noticed that elderly patients of lower socioeconomic status seemed to die at a slower rate. These patients have been noticed to take famotidine at a lower cost than the more expensive proton pump inhibitors, ”Schmelkin told Fox News.
The next step in the research would be a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study to see if famotidine has any clinical benefit, the chief of gastroenterology said.
The Hartford researchers have said in reports that their findings should be interpreted with caution because this is a retrospective, observational, single-center study. Like Schmelkin, they suggested that more research is needed regarding the use and dosage of famotidine in the treatment of the novel coronavirus.
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