https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jmv.25839
That paper about recovery in a seriously ill patient being treated with erythropoietin kept me wondering about what might be happening with that.
I ran across this:
https://content.iospress.com/articles/advances-in-neuroimmune-biology/nib140076
“If high dose of recombinant human erythropoietin is used, it will stimulate platelet production, which is a transient effect. Expanded erythropoiesis exerts a negative impact on platelet production.”
Wouldn’t that be what you’d want in COVID-19 patients who need oxygen (more red blood cells) but are having clotting in the small vessels of the lungs (less platelets)? Would the EPO given to the COVID-19 patient who recovered be considered high dose?
I probably don’t know what I’m talking about but I thought I’d run the idea by an MD.
i don’t think so for a couple of reasons. first this is a problem getting oxygen across the alveolar wall (in the llungs) not a red cell capacity problem. Epo takes a while to work to start with (days to weeks) and this is not a red cell problem and too many red cells makes the blood thick/sluggish and more likely to clot. then your paper says platelets transiently increase before they decrease. in order for platelets to decrease enough to affect clotting they need to decrease by a lot - more than 50% and i’ve never seen epo drop them that significantly in chemo or dialysis patients where it is commonly used. Good thought but I don’t see this helping.
I just saw gas_dr’s post at #102. So erythropoietin takes too long for what I was thinking about in #124. Never mind.