MADURAI: Guru Hospital in Madurai has been given nod for low dose radiation trials for COVID-19 PNEUMONIA patients since the solution to prevent uncontrolled systemic inflammation.
Dr.S.G.Balamurugan, Chairman, Guru Hospital, Madurai, has explained through a press release issued on 6th June 2021, that a viable, effective and proven solution is to do low dose radiation for the whole lung.
“This method is historically used to treat pneumonia patients and it was also tried for Spanish flu pandemic treatment. Some western countries have tried this low dose radiation solution and found success in patient recovery from uncontrolled systemic inflammation which is also called as Cytokine Storm,” he said.
TREATMENT REGIME:
Dr.S.G.Balamurugan, Chairman, Guru Hospital in Madurai, has informed that the treatment regime is simple, the patients will be treated with a low dose of 0.5 cGy radiation dose to both lungs in a single day.
“The effect will be observed as early as the first day. Most of the patient in the trial significantly improved in health condition in 7 days. With a huge data base from treating cancer patients, we can be very sure that no critical dose is being delivered to any organs. It’s completely non-invasive, quick to deliver with precision with a radiotherapy LINAC and no chronic side efforts will be seen,” he added.
Emphasising that the proposed treatment solution is simple and effective, the Guru Hospital Chairman here has said that AIIMS Delhi has already tried this treatment and has found positive results .
“Guru Hospital, Madurai has already obtained the ethical board’s approval to carry out this trial. We also have got approval from Clinical Trials Registry – India (CTRI),” Dr.Balamurugan informed.
Low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT) has anti-inflammatory effects that can interfere with the inflammatory cascade, thus reducing the severity of associated cytokine release and might be useful in the treatment of respiratory complications caused by COVID-19.
“The primary end-point in our trial will be to evaluate the efficacy of low-dose pulmonary irradiation using a Linear accelerator as an adjunctive treatment in interstitial pneumonia in patients with COVID-19 by improving the PaO2-FiO2 by 20% measured 48-72h after treatment with respect to baseline pre- irradiation measurement,” the press release from Guru Hospital said.
