A blood test may show which COVID-19 patients steroids will help — or harm
A cheap and easy blood test for inflammation may help determine which COVID-19 patients will benefit from getting steroids. In an observational study of people hospitalized with COVID-19, those with high levels of an inflammation indicator called C-reactive protein in their blood had a reduced chance of dying or being put on a ventilator when treated with steroids. But steroid treatment more than doubled the risk of needing a ventilator or dying for people with low levels of the inflammation-indicating protein, researchers report July 22 in the Journal of Hospital Medicine. “Steroids are Goldilocks drugs: They need to be given at the just right time,” says Luis Ostrosky, an infectious diseases doctor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston who was not involved with the work. Giving steroids too early may rein in the immune system too much so that it can’t effectively fight the coronavirus, leading to the...