High-doses vitamin C improves cardiac injury through preventing
hyper-inflammatory response in coronavirus disease 2019
Abstract
Aim: To assess effect of high-dose vitamin C on cardiac injury in
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: The study was designed
based on the severe and critically ill COVID-19 with cardiac injury.
Demographics and baseline clinical characteristics were collected and
analyzed in addition to laboratory examinations including inflammatory
markers on admission and at 14 days after treatment from the electronic
medical records. Participants were followed-up for 14 days after
treatment with high-dose vitamin C in addition to conventional therapy.
Result: The patients (n = 113) were categorized into the improved
cardiac injury (ICI) group (n = 70) and the non-improved cardiac injury
(NICI) group (n = 43). Overall, 51 (45.1%) patients were administrated
with high-dose vitamin C, the percentages of patients treated with
high-dose vitamin C were higher in the ICI group than that in the NICI
group (52.8% vs 32.5%, P = 0.035). Further analysis showed that
concentrations of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), tumor
necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R), IL-6 and IL-8
significantly decreased at 14 days after treatment in patients treated
with high-dose vitamin C compared with those in patients administrated
without high-dose vitamin C. Meanwhile, similar results were also
observed regarding changes in inflammatory markers from baseline to 14
days after treatment in patients receiving high-dose vitamin C.
Conclusion: High-dose vitamin C can improve cardiac injury through
preventing hyper-inflammatory response in severe and critically ill
COVID-19.