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Virus Outbreak: Hospital touts blood purification treatment
By Dennis Xie / Staff writer, with CNA



The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan Hospital successfully treated a 52-year-old woman with COVID-19 by using a blood purification system, nephrologist Wang Wei-chieh (???) said yesterday.
Blood purification, or plasma exchange, helps remove cytokines, small proteins that modulate the body’s immune response, before the “filtered” blood is returned to the patient, Wang told a news conference at the hospital.
A “cytokine storm,” the sudden production of cytokines — a broad and loose category of small proteins important in cell signaling — can lead to severe inflammation and fatal complications in COVID-19 patients, he said.
The woman was confirmed to have COVID-19 on March 15, Wang added.
About a week later, she developed severe lung complications and was transferred to the intensive care unit on March 26, he said.
A medical team performed three plasma exchanges, which took about 120 minutes each, and continuous venovenous hemofiltration, Wang said.
Improvements to her clinical manifestations and radiographic images were seen a few days later, he said.
Following a month of treatment, the woman was transferred to a general ward and would be discharged soon, he said.
Unlike medication, blood purification, even when it does not work, has no side effects, Wang said, adding that the therapeutic strategy helps remove most toxins from the blood and benefits blood vessels.
Hopefully, the treatment would be used more widely to save more lives of people with COVID-19, Wang said.


https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/05/08/2003736037