Effects of Hydroxychloroquine on Covid-19 in Intensive Care Unit Patients: Preliminary Results

Lopez, Alexandre; Duclos, Gary; Pastene, Bruno; Bezulier, Karine; Guilhaumou, Romain; Solas, Caroline; Zieleskiewicz, Laurent; Leone, Marc

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of intensive care unit (ICU) patients received hydroxychloroquine. The primary objective of our study was to assess the effects of hydroxychloroquine according to its plasma concentration in ICU patients. To this purpose, a single-center retrospective study was performed from March to April 2020 in an ICU of a university hospital. All patients admitted to our ICU with a confirmed Covid-19 pneumonia and treated by hydroxychloroquine were included. We compared 17 patients in whom the hydroxychloroquine plasma concentration was in the therapeutic target (on-target) and 12 patients in whom the plasma concentration was below the target (off-target). The follow-up of patients was 15 days. No association was found between hydroxychloroquine plasma concentration and viral load evolution (p = 0.77). There was no significant difference between the two groups for the duration of mechanical ventilation, length of ICU stay, in-hospital mortality, and 15-days mortality. This finding suggests that hydroxychloroquine administration for Covid-19 patients hospitalized in ICU is not associated with improved outcomes. These results need confirmation by larger multicenter studies.