Article Text
PDF
Statistics from Altmetric.com
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is now overwhelming, spreading throughout the world, and has been declared a global pandemic by the WHO. So far, more than 4 million confirmed cases have been reported by WHO worldwide, including more than 290,000 deaths. And the treatment for the critically ill patients of COVID-19 remains a challenge.
The first report of pathological characteristics of the patient who died from severe infection with SARS-CoV-2 demonstrated an increased concentration of highly proinflammatory cytokines.1 Actually, the cytokine storm mediated by overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines has been observed in a large population of critically ill patients with COVID-19.2 Cytokine storms can result in cardiovascular collapse, multiple organ dysfunction, cardiac arrest, and death. Epinephrine, a vasoactive agent, has been routinely employed to the critical situation such as cardiac arrest. However, it remains uncertain whether epinephrine can also benefit the cardiac arrest following cytokine storms occurred in …
Footnotes
Contributors PL wrote the paper. JL and DL revised it.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.