Evaluation of the effects of pentoxifylline in reducing the complications of covid 19

Abstract

A new type of coronavirus which caused pneumonia in people detected in Wuhan, China, in 2019. The disease associated to this virus was named as COVID-19. According to the anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant and improvement of blood rheological, antioxidant, antiviral and antithrombotic properties of pentoxifylline, this drug can be prescribed as an adjunctive treatment for patients with COVID-19. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of pentoxifylline on the reduction of covid-19 complications. Material and methods: Two-hundred covid-19 patients were randomly entered in the study. The demographic, clinical, treatment regimens, and underlying diseases information of patients were collected. Covid-19 patients were divided into two groups receiving pentoxifylline group and not receiving pentoxifylline group. Daily changes of studied variables were recorded. Result: The use of pentoxifylline in the intervention group compared to the control group reduced the symptoms of covid-19 patients such as weakness, fatigue, chest pain, fever, cough and improved the ventilation status of the patients at the end of the study (P < 0.05) compared to the control group.Discussion and conclusion: Pentoxifylline decreases serum level of some laboratory parameters including CRP, LDH, Urea, PCO2, HCO3, Bili-direct, PH and Ferritin and increases serum level RBC, Hct, Hb and Procalcitonin. Therefore, pentoxifylline can be considered as an auxiliary drug in the recovery of covid-19 patients.