TY - JOUR T1 - Tocilizumab or glucocorticoids treatment for patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia: An observational study JO - The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases T2 - AU - Dolci,Giovanni AU - Cassone,Giulia AU - Besutti,Giulia AU - Corsini,Romina AU - Sampaolesi,Fabio AU - Iotti,Valentina AU - Galli,Elena AU - Palermo,Adalgisa AU - Fontana,Matteo AU - Mancuso,Pamela SN - 14138670 M3 - 10.1016/j.bjid.2021.101702 DO - 10.1016/j.bjid.2021.101702 UR - https://bjid.org.br/en-tocilizumab-or-glucocorticoids-treatment-for-articulo-S1413867021001719 AB - ObjectiveTo estimate the effect of tocilizumab or glucocorticoids in preventing death and intubation in patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study enrolling all consecutive patients hospitalized at Reggio Emilia AUSL between February the 11th and April 14th 2020 for severe COVID-19 and treated with tocilizumab or glucocorticoids (at least 80 mg/day of methylprednisolone or equivalent for at least 3 days).The primary outcome was death within 30 days from the start of the considered therapies. The secondary outcome was a composite outcome of death and/or intubation. All patients have been followed-up until May 19th 2020, with a follow-up of at least 30 days for every patient.To reduce confounding due to potential non-comparability of the two groups, those receiving tocilizumab and those receiving glucocorticoids, a propensity score was calculated as the inverse probability weighting of receiving treatment conditional on the baseline covariates. Results and conclusionTherapy with tocilizumab alone was associated with a reduction of deaths (OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.21-1.17) and of the composite outcome death/intubation (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.13-0.90) compared to glucocorticoids alone. Nevertheless, this result should be cautiously interpreted due to a potential prescription bias. ER -