Convalescent Plasma for the Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Essay

The article places major emphasis on the quantitative assessment of the possible means of treating and preventing COVID-19.

The ongoing pandemic has revealed the scholars’ interest in the human’s body ability to resist infection with the help of producing antibodies against the virus. Thus, when it comes to the antibodies stored in one’s blood, the phenomenon of convalescent plasma (CP) therapy is considered one of the most efficient ways to transport the resistance to a virus as a form of prophylaxis and therapy.

Hence, the broad topic of the article concerns the utilization of CP the patients who recovered from COVID-19 as a means of virus prophylaxis and medical intervention during treatment. The objective of the study is to analyze the existing data on the use of CP in terms of COVID treatment among various population samples.

The hypothesis of the study may be defined as an assumption presented by the scholars prior to conducting an empirical study. Later, during the study analysis, researchers either justify or reject the outlined hypothesis based on the quantitative study conducted.

The present study does not obtain an explicitly stated hypothesis outlined by the authors. Thus, one may draw a hypothesis based on the researchers’ objective. There are two major approaches to hypothesis formation: null and alternative. The former appeals to the absence of a relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The latter, in its turn, states the interrelation. Hence, the following hypotheses may be outlined:

• H₀: There is no relationship between the use of CP during COVID-19 treatment and positive or negative patient outcomes.
• H₁: There exists a correlation between the administration of CP and patient outcomes during therapy and prophylaxis of COVID-19.

The division between dependent and independent variables has many peculiarities when applied to different types of research. Thus, when considering the fact that the present study aims at discovering the efficiency of CP administration in terms of COVID-19 treatment through systematic analysis, it should be taken into account that the researchers placed major emphasis on the systematizing empirical data in scholarly publications according to the patients and cases addressed in the studies.

Hence, the independent variable of the study, or the quantitative indicators of the potential causes of a certain phenomenon, encompasses:

• Clinical studies;
• Commentaries;
• Reviews;
• Guidelines or protocols;
• In vitro testing of CP antibodies.

Consequently, the dependent variable of the study addresses the COVID-19 patient outcomes after the CP antibodies injection.

The present quantitative systematic review is primarily focused on the selection of relevant publications from various peer-reviewed sources and publications.

Thus, during the data collection for the study, the primary emphasis was drawn to the selection of studies explicitly related to the key notions of the study. Hence, instead of patients coping with COVID-19, the population of interest addressed the peer-reviewed scholarly articles and medical case publications related to the utilization of CP as a potential means of treating and preventing COVID-19 among patients.

When speaking of the population criteria within the study selection, it should be mentioned that no gender, age, and ethical limitations were employed in the process of data extortion. The eligible studies included patients aged 4-100 years with different health backgrounds.

The initial research sample taken into account by the scholars encompassed 560 search results either implicitly or explicitly concerning the topic of interest. However, after a meticulous selection process, a total of 243 studies were included in the review. The studies selected were then divided into the following subcategories:

• Clinical studies – 64 items:
  • 20 case reports;
  • 31 case series;
  • 11 case-controlled trials;
  • 2 randomized controlled trials.
  • Commentary articles (divided into positive, neutral, and negative commentaries) – 79;
• Reviews – 46:
  • Rapid
  • State-of-the-art;
  • Scoping;
  • Evidence;
  • Systematic and meta-analysis;
  • Overview;
  • Mixed studies;
  • Systematic;
  • Critical;
  • Literature.
• Protocols/guidance – 19:
  • In vitro testing of CP antibodies – 35.

The sampling method utilized for the study was based on the provisions and recommendations provided in terms of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. The PRISMA framework helps the researchers set a minimum of requirements that are to be found within the article, publication, review, or controlled trial in order for them to be quantitively and qualitatively eligible for the evaluation.

In general, the PRISMA framework addressed 27 basic criteria that include the presence:

• Title;
• Abstract;
• Introduction;
• Methods;
• Results;
• Discussion;
• Other information includes registration, support, competing interests, and availability of data and other materials.

Following the pillars of the PRISMA framework, the data collections underwent four major evaluation stages:

1. Identification. At this stage, the researchers defined the keywords that should mark the eligibility criteria for the search. The keywords included such notions as “COVID-19,” “SARS-CoV-2,” “coronavirus,” “2019,” and “convalescent plasma/ser.” The keywords were used to search such databases as PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase. The search results accounted for 560 records within the databases and 23 records found through citations and other external references.
2. Screening. During the stage, the titles and abstracts were analyzed on the matter of relevance of the study. Additionally, the duplicates were removed from the sample. As a result, 344 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility.
3. Eligibility. In terms of the analysis, 101 articles were excluded from the sample due to the lack of correlation to the matter of administration of CP antibodies in terms of COVID-19 treatment.
4. Included. The final sample included 243 articles related to the broad topic raised in the study’s objective.

Reference

Peng, H. T., Rhind, S. G., & Beckett, A. (2021). Convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19: A systematic review and quantitative analysis.JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 7(4). Web.