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Therapeutic Anticoagulation with Heparin in Critically Ill Patients with Covid-19
1From the University of Toronto (E.C.G., P.R.L., L.C.G., M.E.F., V.D., R.A.F., J.P.G., M.H., A.S.S.), University Health Network (E.C.G., M.H.), Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at University Health Network (P.R.L., L.C.G., M.E.F., V.D.), Ozmosis Research (L.B., V.W.), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (J.P.G.), Toronto, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (M. Carrier, L.A.C., D.A.F., G.L.G., D.M.S.), Institut du Savoir Montfort (M. Carrier, G.L.G.), and the University of Ottawa (L.A.C., D.A.F., D.M.S.), Ottawa, the University of Manitoba (A. Kumar, B.L.H., R.Z., S.A.L., D.S., G.V.-G.) and CancerCare Manitoba (B.L.H., R.Z.), Winnipeg, Université Laval and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec-Université Laval Research Center, Quebec, QC (A.F.T.), McGill University, Montreal (S.R.K., E.G.M.), St. Michael's Hospital Unity Health, Toronto (J.C.M., Z.B., M.S., A.S.S.), McMaster University and the Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute, Hamilton, ON (P.L.G.) Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC (F.L.), St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, MB (N.M.), the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (S. Murthy), and the University of Alberta, Edmonton (S.D.) - all in Canada; University of Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol (C.A.B.), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (B.-A.K.), Imperial College London (A.C.G., F.A.-B., M.A.L.), Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, St. Mary's Hospital (A.C.G.), University College London Hospital (R.H.), Kings Healthcare Partners (B.J.H.), and Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) (P.R.M., K.R.), London, Queen's University Belfast and Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast (D.F.M.), and Oxford University (A. Beane, L.J.E., S.J.S.) and NHS Blood and Transplant (L.J.E., S. Mavromichalis, S.J.S.), Oxford - all in the United Kingdom; the University of Pittsburgh (B.J.M., D.C.A., M.M.B., M.D.N., H.F.E., J.D.F., Z.F., D.T.H., A.J.K., C.M.L., K.L., M.M., S.K.M., C.W.S., Y.Z.), University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (B.J.M., D.C.A., M.D.N., K.L.), the Clinical Research, Investigation, and Systems Modeling of Acute Illness (CRISMA) Center, University of Pittsburgh (T.D.G.), and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (C.M. Horvat) - all in Pittsburgh; New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine (J.S.B., H.R.R., J.S.H., T.C., A.C., N.M.K., S. Mavromichalis, S.P.), NYU Langone Health, NYU Langone Hospital (T.A., T.C., A.C., J.M.H., E.Y.), and Bellevue Hospital (N.M.K.), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (R.S.R.), and Mount Sinai Heart (R.S.R.), New York, Montefiore Medical Center (M.N.G., H.H.B., S.C., J.-T.C., A.A. Hope, R.N.) and Albert Einstein College of Medicine (M.N.G., H.H.B., B.T.G., A.A. Hope), Bronx, and NYU Langone Long Island, Mineola (A.A. Hindenburg) - all in New York; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital-University of California, San Francisco (L.Z.K., C.M. Hendrickson, M.M.K., A.E.K., B.N.-G., J.J.P.), Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance (R.J.L.), Global Coalition for Adaptive Research (M. Buxton) and the University of California, Los Angeles (G.L.), Los Angeles, the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego (T.W.C.), and Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto (J.G.W.) - all in California; the University of Illinois (K.S.K., J.R.J., J.G.Q.), the University of Chicago (J.D.P.), and the Chartis Group (J.S.) - all in Chicago; University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University (L.P.G.D., M. Bonten, R.E.G.S., W.B.-P.), and Utrecht University (R.E.G.S.), Utrecht, and Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen (S. Middeldorp, F.L.V.) - all in the Netherlands; Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, Burlington (M. Cushman); Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern (T.T.), and SOCAR Research, Nyon (B.-A.K., S. Brouwer) - both in Switzerland; Instituto do Coracao, Hospital das Clinicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo (L.C.G., F.G.L., J.C.N.), Avanti Pesquisa Clínica (A.S.M.), and Hospital 9 de Julho (F.O.S.), Sao Paulo, Hospital do Coração de Mato Grosso do Sul (M.P.), the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (M.P.), Hospital Universitário Maria Aparecida Pedrossia (D.G.S.), and Hospital Unimed Campo Grande (D.G.S.), Campo Grande, and Instituto Goiano de Oncologia e Hematologia, Clinical Research Center, Goiânia (M.O.S.) - all in Brazil; the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, Monash University (Z.M., C.J.M., S.A.W., A. Buzgau, C.G., A.M.H., S.P.M., A.D.N., J.C.P.), Monash University (A.C.C.), and Alfred Health (A.C.C., A.D.N.), Melbourne, VIC, St. John of God Subiaco Hospital, Subiaco, WA (S.A.W., E. Litton), Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA (S. Bihari), and Fiona Stanley Hospital, Perth, WA (E. Litton) - all in Australia; Berry Consultants, Austin (R.J.L., L.R.B., E. Lorenzi, S.M.B., M.A.D., M.F., A.M., C.T.S.), and Baylor Scott and White Health, Temple (R.J.W.) - both in Texas; Auckland City Hospital (C.J.M., S.P.M., R.L.P.) and the University of Auckland (R.L.P.), Auckland, and the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, Wellington (C.J.M., A.M.T.) - all in New Zealand; Fédération Hospitalo-Universitaire Saclay and Paris Seine Nord Endeavour to Personalize Interventions for Sepsis (FHU-SEPSIS), Raymond Poincaré Hospital, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Garches (D. Annane), and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille (B.C.) - both in France; King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Y.M.A.); Nepal Mediciti Hospital, Lalitpur (D. Aryal), and the Nepal Intensive Care Research Foundation, Kathmandu (D. Aryal); Versiti Blood Research Institute, Milwaukee (L.B.K.); National Intensive Care Surveillance (NICS)-Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Colombo, Sri Lanka (A. Beane); Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany (F.B.); Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland (A.D.), and the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati (K.H.) - both in Ohio; Ochsner Medical Center, University of Queensland-Ochsner Clinical School, New Orleans (M.B.E.); Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City (J.E., E.M.G.); Brigham and Women's Hospital (B.M.E., Y.K., S.M.H.), Massachusetts General Hospital (N.S.R., A.B.S.), and Harvard Medical School (B.M.E., Y.K., N.S.R., A.B.S.) - all in Boston; University of Alabama, Birmingham (S.G.); TriStar Centennial Medical Center, Nashville (A.L.G.); University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium (H.G.); Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey (Y.Y.G.); University of Oxford, Bangkok, Thailand (R.H.); the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (R.C.H., P.K.P.), Beaumont Health, Royal Oak (G.B.N.), and Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Auburn Hills (G.B.N.) - all in Michigan; Apollo Speciality Hospital OMR, Chennai, India (D.J.); Oregon Health and Science University, Portland (A. Khan); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (A. Kindzelski, E.S.L.); University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson (M.E.K.); IdiPaz Research Institute, Universidad Autonoma, Madrid (J.L.-S.); University College Dublin, Dublin (A.D.N.); the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City (L.S.); and Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina (L.W.).
Insights
Therapeutic-dose anticoagulation did not improve outcomes for critically ill COVID-19 patients. This study found no significant difference in survival or organ support days compared to standard thromboprophylaxis.
Area of Science:
- Critical Care Medicine
- Infectious Diseases
- Hematology
Background:
- Thrombosis and inflammation are significant contributors to morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 patients.
- The study investigated the potential benefits of therapeutic-dose anticoagulation in critically ill patients with severe COVID-19.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if therapeutic-dose anticoagulation improves outcomes in critically ill COVID-19 patients.
- To compare organ support-free days and survival rates between therapeutic anticoagulation and standard thromboprophylaxis.
Main Methods:
- An open-label, adaptive, multiplatform randomized clinical trial was conducted.
- Critically ill COVID-19 patients were assigned to either therapeutic-dose heparin or usual-care pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis.
- The primary outcome measured was organ support-free days up to day 21, including in-hospital death.
Main Results:
- The trial was stopped early due to futility for therapeutic-dose anticoagulation.
- No significant difference in organ support-free days was observed between the groups (median 1 vs. 4 days).
- Survival rates were similar (62.7% vs. 64.5%), but major bleeding was higher with therapeutic anticoagulation (3.8% vs. 2.3%).
Conclusions:
- Therapeutic-dose anticoagulation with heparin did not improve survival or organ support-free days in critically ill COVID-19 patients.
- Usual-care pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis was not inferior to therapeutic-dose anticoagulation.
- The findings suggest standard thromboprophylaxis is appropriate for this patient population.
Background:
Thrombosis and inflammation may contribute to morbidity and mortality among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). We hypothesized that therapeutic-dose anticoagulation would improve outcomes in critically ill patients with Covid-19.
Methods:
In an open-label, adaptive, multiplatform, randomized clinical trial, critically ill patients with severe Covid-19 were randomly assigned to a pragmatically defined regimen of either therapeutic-dose anticoagulation with heparin or pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis in accordance with local usual care. The primary outcome was organ support-free days, evaluated on an ordinal scale that combined in-hospital death (assigned a value of -1) and the number of days free of cardiovascular or respiratory organ support up to day 21 among patients who survived to hospital discharge.
Results:
The trial was stopped when the prespecified criterion for futility was met for therapeutic-dose anticoagulation. Data on the primary outcome were available for 1098 patients (534 assigned to therapeutic-dose anticoagulation and 564 assigned to usual-care thromboprophylaxis). The median value for organ support-free days was 1 (interquartile range, -1 to 16) among the patients assigned to therapeutic-dose anticoagulation and was 4 (interquartile range, -1 to 16) among the patients assigned to usual-care thromboprophylaxis (adjusted proportional odds ratio, 0.83; 95% credible interval, 0.67 to 1.03; posterior probability of futility [defined as an odds ratio <1.2], 99.9%). The percentage of patients who survived to hospital discharge was similar in the two groups (62.7% and 64.5%, respectively; adjusted odds ratio, 0.84; 95% credible interval, 0.64 to 1.11). Major bleeding occurred in 3.8% of the patients assigned to therapeutic-dose anticoagulation and in 2.3% of those assigned to usual-care pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis.
Conclusions:
In critically ill patients with Covid-19, an initial strategy of therapeutic-dose anticoagulation with heparin did not result in a greater probability of survival to hospital discharge or a greater number of days free of cardiovascular or respiratory organ support than did usual-care pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis. (REMAP-CAP, ACTIV-4a, and ATTACC ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT02735707, NCT04505774, NCT04359277, and NCT04372589.).
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