Material and Methods
Patients and data:
This retrospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary referral center in Aksaray, Turkey. Diagnosis of COVID-19 was performed by typical computer tomography (CT) findings in addition to clinical signs and symptoms and confirmed with positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
The study population consisted of two groups as follows; the patients receiving high dose intravenous anakinra (anakinra group) added to background therapy between 01.09.2021 and 01.02.2022 and the patients treated with standard of care (SoC) as historical control group who were hospitalized between 01.07.2021 and 01.09.2021. COVID-19 disease severity was evaluated according to the National Institute of Health (NIH) severity scale and only severe and critically ill patients who followed-up in the ward were included into the study (”COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Treatment Guidelines.,” 2022).
Individual written patient consent and local ethic committee approval was obtained for this study (date/number: 24.02.2022, 2022/04-09).