A CROSS-SECTIONAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFICACY OF METHYLENE BLUE IN THE TREATMENT OF HYPOXIC COVID-19 PATIENTS

Authors

  • NARENDER SAYINI Department of Pulmonology GGH, Karimnagar, Telangana-505001, India https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6440-0837
  • PADMA RACHARLA Department of General Medicine, GGH, Karimnagar, Telangana-505001, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22159/ijpps.2025v17i3.53238

Keywords:

Acute respiratory distress syndrome, Hypoxemia, Respiratory rate

Abstract

Objective: The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Methylene Blue (MB) in reducing hypoxia in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional observational record-based study was conducted at Sai Krishna Multi-Specialty Hospital, Karimnagar, Telangana, over four months with 100 case sheets. A paired equal variance T-test was used to compare the pre-and post-treatment levels of SpO2 and respiratory rate among the hypoxic patients.

Results: Out of 100 case sheets examined, about 70 patients were between the age groups of 45 to 54 years, 58 were males and 42 were females. The mean SPO2 before treatment was 71.47% compared with day 3 values of SPO2 which is 77.76% and there was a significant improvement in the mean saturation levels with a P value less than 0.0001. There was a significant improvement in the mean respiratory rate which was 26.92+0.85 at baseline before treatment, 23.93+0.90 on Day 3, and 21.42+1.27 on Day 7 after treatment with methylene blue and the P value is less than 0.0001.

Conclusion: This studyconcludes that Methylene blue intervention in COVID-related acute respiratory distress syndrome avoids the devastating consequences and improves patients’ condition by reducing hypoxemia and respiratory distress.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Rani AS, Madhavi P, T.C. A retrospective study to evaluate the efficacy of injection Augmentin in COVID-19 patients with pneumonia at a tertiary care teaching hospital, Telangana. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2022;14(10):28-31.

Scigliano G, Scigliano GA. Methylene blue in covid-19. Med Hypotheses. 2021 Jan;146(2021):110455.

Kasukurthi Swarupa, Marpaka Sravani, Karunasree N. Assessment and analysis of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination among children aged 15-18 y at a tertiary care teaching hospital, Telangana: a prospective observational study. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.2023; 15(3): 15-20.

Bohn MK, Hall A, Sepiashvili L, Jung B, Steele S, Adeli K. Pathophysiology of COVID-19: Mechanisms Underlying Disease Severity and Progression. Physiology (Bethesda). 2020;35(5):288-301.

Mona Sadat Mirtaleb, Amir Hossein Mirtaleb, Hassan Nosrati, Jalal Heshmatnia, Reza Falak, Reza Zolfaghari Emameh. Potential therapeutic agents to COVID-19: An updated review on antiviral therapy, immunotherapy, and cell therapy. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2021 March; 138 (2021) 111518: 1-15.

Sabitha S, Shobana N, Prakash P, Padmanaban S, Sathiyashree M, Saigeetha S, Chakravarthi S, Uthaman S, Park IK, Samrot AV. A Review of Different Vaccines and Strategies to Combat COVID-19. Vaccines (Basel). 2022 May 9;10(5):737. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10050737. PMID: 35632493; PMCID: PMC9145217.

Shenoy N, Luchtel R, Gulani P. Considerations for target oxygen saturation in COVID-19 patients: are we under-shooting? BMC Med. 2020 Aug 19; 18(1): 260.

Dabholkar N, Gorantla S, Dubey SK, Alexander A, Taliyan R, Singhvi G. Repurposing methylene blue in the management of COVID-19: Mechanistic aspects and clinical investigations. Biomed Pharmacother. 2021 Oct;142:112023.

Oz M, Lorke DE, Hasan M, Petroianu GA. Cellular and molecular actions of Methylene Blue in the nervous system. Med Res Rev. 2011 Jan; 31(1): 93-117.

Hepburn J, Williams-Lockhart S, Bensadoun RJ, Hanna R. A Novel Approach of Combining Methylene Blue Photodynamic Inactivation, Photobiomodulation and Oral Ingested Methylene Blue in COVID-19 Management: A Pilot Clinical Study with 12-month Follow-Up. Antioxidants (Basel). 2022 Nov 8;11(11):2211.

Chuang ST, Papp H, Kuczmog A, Eells R, Condor Capcha JM, Shehadeh LA, Jakab F, Buchwald P. Methylene Blue Is a Nonspecific Protein-Protein Interaction Inhibitor with Potential for Repurposing as an Antiviral for COVID-19. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2022 May 18;15(5):621.

Cagno V, Medaglia C, Cerny A, Cerny T, Zwygart AC, Cerny E, Tapparel C. Methylene Blue has a potent antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 and H1N1 influenza virus in the absence of UV-activation in vitro. Sci Rep. 2021 Jul 12;11(1):14295.

Ascha M, Bhattacharyya A, Ramos JA, Tonelli AR. Pulse Oximetry and Arterial Oxygen Saturation during Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2018 Oct;50(10):1992-1997.

Torp KD, Modi P, Pollard EJ, et al. Pulse Oximetry. [Updated 2023 Jul 30]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024.

Miller DJ, Capodilupo JV, Lastella M, Sargent C, Roach GD, Lee VH, Capodilupo ER. Analyzing changes in respiratory rate to predict the risk of COVID-19 infection. PLoS One. 2020 Dec 10;15(12):e0243693.

R.B. Polidoro, R.S. Hagan, R. de Santis Santiago, N.W. Schmidt, Overview: systemic inflammatory response derived from lung injury caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection explains severe outcomes in COVID-19, Front. Immunol. 11 (2020) 1626.

D. Hamidi-Alamdari, S. Hafizi-Lotfabadi, A. Bagheri-Moghaddam, et al. Methylene blue for treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients: a randomized, controlled, open-label clinical trial, phase 2, Rev. Invest Clin. 73 (2021) 190–198.

Chaolin Huang, Yeming Wang, Xingwang Li, et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. The Lancet. 2020; 395(10223):497-506.

Meng Y, Wu P, Lu W, Liu K, Ma K, Huang L, Cai J, Zhang H, Qin Y, Sun H, Ding W, Gui L, Wu P. Sex-specific clinical characteristics and prognosis of coronavirus disease-19 infection in Wuhan, China: A retrospective study of 168 severe patients. PLoS Pathog. 2020 Apr 28;16(4):e1008520.

Bwire GM. Coronavirus: why men are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than Women? SN Compr Clin Med. 2020;2(7):874-6.

Sanei ZS, Shahrahmani F, Khaleghi Manesh B, Hamidi-Alamdari D, Mehrad-Majd H, Mavaji Darban B, Mirdoosti SM, Seddigh-Shamsi M. Methylene blue for COVID-19 ARDS: insights from a randomized Clinical Trial. Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol. 2024 Aug 29.

Zhukhovitsky V, Shevlyagina N, Zubasheva M, Russu L, Gushchin V, Meerovich G, Strakhovskaya M. Infectivity and Morphology of Bovine Coronavirus Inactivated In Vitro by Cationic Photosensitizers. Viruses. 2022 May 15;14(5):1053.

Yella SHT, Yella SST, Sasanka KSBSK, Thangaraju P. Does Methylene Blue Satisfy an Option in COVID-19 ARDS? Infect Disord Drug Targets. 2022;22(6): e170322202339.

Published

06-02-2025

How to Cite

SAYINI, N., and P. RACHARLA. “A CROSS-SECTIONAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFICACY OF METHYLENE BLUE IN THE TREATMENT OF HYPOXIC COVID-19 PATIENTS”. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, vol. 17, no. 3, Feb. 2025, doi:10.22159/ijpps.2025v17i3.53238.

Issue

Section

Original Article(s)