Page 25 - COVID-19-Mortality-review-in-Malaysia-and-updates-on-clinical-management-of-COVID-19

Anti - inflammatory / immunomodulatory agents

This is an early study conducted in Germany that looked at Interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels
in 40 patients. One-third of them required ventilation [1]. If you look at IL-6 level,

when IL-6 < 80 pg/ml, only 4% required intubation. When the IL-6>80 pg/ml, about
92% of them required intubation. The Il-6 started going up about 1.5 days before

intubation. It sort of tells us that the IL-6 level predicted people who need intubation.
So, there is an inflammatory response that needs to be tackled when we control
COVID-19.

Diagram 9: COVID-19 patient with elevated IL-6 are at risk for respiratory failure
may require ventilatory support (Image courtesy of Emory Internal Medicine

Residency: COVID-19 visual series)