“First of all, new coronary pneumonia is not the same as SARS or avian influenza. In many cases, SARS is very severe when the patient comes up. However, the early onset of new crown patients is not very dangerous, but in the later period, there will be an acceleration, and the patient will soon enter a state of multiple organ failure, which will be a storm of inflammation. Once in this state, it is difficult for our treatment to pull it back. This is completely different from the past. Many patients do not die from the lungs. Because the hospital has ECMO (Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Support), a ventilator, and various treatment strategies, which can replace the patient’s lung function. But many patients die of multiple organ failure outside the lungs, which is very different from the past.
Why is there such a sudden acceleration?
Zhong Ming said that the patient’s body may have initiated an inflammatory storm, which caused the failure of various organs. What they observed is that many patients have elevated markers of myocardial damage, so the virus is likely to damage the heart muscle itself, similar to myocarditis, and may damage many other organs....
However, this disease has a characteristic that some patients may be relatively mild in the first two days, and suddenly worsen on the third day or later. If it is not treated in time, it may die. This may be related to patient infection and the resulting “inflammatory storm”.
“Inflammation storm” is that the patient’s infection activates the body’s immune cells, causing excessive damage to the immune cells. Normal immunity is protection, and excessive immunity is damage, which not only causes damage to the lungs, but also causes damage to the kidneys, liver, and heart muscle.
For example, after our body is infected, the body’s white blood cells and lymphocytes will start secreting a cytokine. The cytokine acts like a correspondent or herald, attracting these spare white blood cells and lymphocytes distributed in other parts of the muscle to the lesion site, killing the microbial virus and bacteria. In the middle, it will release an inflammatory mediator. Moderate release is normal. Excessive release will not only kill viruses and bacteria, but also cause damage to normal cells.
Zhou Zheng said that after the “inflammatory storm”, the patient’s condition tends to turn sharply, and soon he will have unconsciousness, rapid breathing, and then there will be decreased blood oxygen saturation, even coagulation dysfunction, oliguria and anuria, and elevated transaminase . Various organs fail, not just the lungs, which is the reason for the high mortality and mortality of many patients with new coronary pneumonia, especially the elderly.
...Zhou Zheng said that in a certain period of time, a small amount of hormones can be used to suppress this inflammatory response, but this varies from person to person..”
Interesting, thanks for posting.