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'I'm positive about what this is doing': Navicent Health researches drug to treat COVID-19 patients

Doctors are taking a closer look at a drug typically used to treat strokes.

MACON, Ga. — Central Georgia doctors aren't only treating COVID-19 patients. Some are also researching treatments for the virus.

The Medical Center, Navicent Health is exploring a drug for COVID-19 patients that helps deliver oxygen to the lungs. Now, they're taking part in an international collaboration with various distinguished hospitals. 

Doctors at Navicent are taking a closer look at a treatment that many in the field are already familiar with. It's actually a drug typically used for strokes, but doctors are now applying it to COVID-19 patients and are seeing promising outcomes.

The treatment is called Tissue Palsminogen Activator, also known as tPA. It's used as a "clot-busting" blood thinner. 

Dr. Benjie Christie says several autopsy reports from around the world show clots in the lungs of COVID patients who have passed away. 

"If these clots are forming and we can't get gas across into our bloodstream, if we bust the clots up, it may make it easier for us to exchange gas in the bloodstream and therefore create a more survivable environment," Christie said. 

After much consideration and research, Dr. Christie says doctors at Navicent Health began using tPA on patients around March. 

The team put together a set of guidelines to best determine which patients to give the treatment to. Those guidelines include worsening lung function and severe hypoxemia, which means there's a low level of oxygen in the blood. 

"We were comfortable with the idea that it would change and create some physiological change. We just didn't necessarily know how impactful, or sustainable it would be," Christie said. 

Overall, Christie says doctors have seen positive outcomes, and he's hopeful about the research ahead.

"You know there may never be a cure. There may never be an off switch. The best we may be able to do is to identify the most effective method is to care for patients with this severe infection. If we can find a way to allow one's body to optimize so that it can endure the insult a little bit better, then that's a win," Christie said. "I'm positive about what this is doing."

Dr. Christie also noted this is just the beginning of their research, and they're still learning more about using the treatment with COVID-19 patients like how durable it is and the appropriate dosage. 

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