Trial RPCEC00000309
Publication Delgado-Enciso I, Research Square, 2020 (preprint)
Dates: 2020-05-01 to 2020-06-30
Funding: Mixed (Consejo Estatal de Ciencia yTecnología del Estado de Colima; Esteripharma S.A. de C.V.)
Conflict of interest: Yes
| Methods | |
| RCT Blinding: single blinding | |
| Location :
Multicenter / Mexico Follow-up duration (days): 20 | |
| Inclusion criteria | Men and non-pregnant women ≥18 years of age; presenting with COVID-19 and a positive diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR; that had a medical consultation due to their illness and were indicated for at-home ambulatory treatment. |
| Exclusion criteria | Pregnant or breastfeeding women and patients presenting with any of the following conditions, prior to the diagnosis of COVID-19: cancer, ischemic heart disease, chronic decompensated systemic disease, creatinine 1.25 times higher than the normal value or creatinine clearance below 50 milliliters/minute (Cockcroft-Gault method), blood hemoglobin below 10 g/dl, drug addiction (illegal drugs), or known liver disease with a doubling of liver function test values (aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase, or bilirubin). Additionally, the following elimination criteria were used: patients that voluntarily decided to abandon the study, patients that, at some point of the study presented with severe toxicity (grade 3 or higher, according to the common terminology criteria for adverse events, CTCAE v5.0, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), that was attributable to the administration of the experimental drug. |
| Interventions | |
| Treatment
Neutral electrolyzed saline (5 ml)Co-Intervention: Standard care Duration : at least 10 days |
|
| Control
Standard care Definition of Standard care: Administration of paracetamol, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids, azithromycin, chloroquine, ivermectin, and/or antiviral drugs, etc., with the indication to return to the emergency service if there was respiratory difficulty or worsening of symptomatology. | |
| Participants | |
| Randomized 84 participants (n1=45 / n2= 39) | |
| Characteristics of participants N=84 Mean age : 47.1 45 males Severity : Mild: n=84 / Moderate: n=0/ Severe: n=0 Critical: n=0 | |
| Primary outcome | |
| In the register Yes | |
| In the report Number of patients with disease progression (hospitalization or death); Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS); change from the baseline in the patient overall self-assessment (score 0-10) | |
| Documents avalaible |
Protocol NR Statistical plan NR Data-sharing stated Yes |
| Risk of bias Overall The overall risk of bias reported in the table corresponds to the highest risk of bias for the outcomes assessed for the systematic review |
Some concerns |
| General comment |
In addition to available version of the pre-print article, the study registry was used in data extraction. The study did not achieve the target sample size (n=100) specified in the registry. There was no change from the trial registration in the intervention and control treatments. Some co-primary outcomes detailed in the report were not specified in the registry (Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) and the change from the baseline in thepatient overall self-assessment). The same applies to a secondary outcome stated in the report that was not in the registry, such as changes from the baseline in different types of body pain (arthralgia, myalgia, headache, and sorethroat), or more exactly, the difference between the values at enrollment and on days 3, 5, and 7 of follow-up.Pain was measured on the 0–10 VAS. This is the report of data on the effect of the experimental treatment on “Patients treated at home”. Adverse events and viral negative conversion events among the control group were not reported. |