TY - JOUR T1 - Association between treatment with colchicine and improved survival in a single-centre cohort of adult hospitalised patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis SP - 1286 LP - 1289 DO - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-217712 VL - 79 IS - 10 AU - Mirko Scarsi AU - Silvia Piantoni AU - Enrico Colombo AU - Paolo Airó AU - Donata Richini AU - Marco Miclini AU - Valeria Bertasi AU - Marta Bianchi AU - Damiano Bottone AU - Patrizia Civelli AU - Maria-Sofia Cotelli AU - Ezio Damiolini AU - Gloria Galbassini AU - Diego Gatta AU - Maria-Laura Ghirardelli AU - Roberto Magri AU - Paola Malamani AU - Monia Mendeni AU - Stefano Molinari AU - Andrea Morotti AU - Luisa Salada AU - Marinella Turla AU - Angiola Vender AU - Angela Tincani AU - Antonio Brucato AU - Franco Franceschini AU - Roberto Furloni AU - Laura Andreoli Y1 - 2020/10/01 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/79/10/1286.abstract N2 - Objectives The outbreak of COVID-19 posed the issue of urgently identifying treatment strategies. Colchicine was considered for this purpose based on well-recognised anti-inflammatory effects and potential antiviral properties. In the present study, colchicine was proposed to patients with COVID-19, and its effects compared with ‘standard-of-care’ (SoC).Methods In the public hospital of Esine, northern Italy, 140 consecutive inpatients, with virologically and radiographically confirmed COVID-19 admitted in the period 5–19 March 2020, were treated with ‘SoC’ (hydroxychloroquine and/or intravenous dexamethasone; and/or lopinavir/ritonavir). They were compared with 122 consecutive inpatients, admitted between 19 March and 5 April 2020, treated with colchicine (1 mg/day) and SoC (antiviral drugs were stopped before colchicine, due to potential interaction).Results Patients treated with colchicine had a better survival rate as compared with SoC at 21 days of follow-up (84.2% (SE=3.3%) vs 63.6% (SE=4.1%), p=0.001). Cox proportional hazards regression survival analysis showed that a lower risk of death was independently associated with colchicine treatment (HR=0.151 (95% CI 0.062 to 0.368), p<0.0001), whereas older age, worse PaO2/FiO2, and higher serum levels of ferritin at entry were associated with a higher risk.Conclusion This proof-of-concept study may support the rationale of use of colchicine for the treatment of COVID-19. Efficacy and safety must be determined in controlled clinical trials. ER -