Annette Langer-Gould, MD, PhD
Los Angeles Medical Center, Department of Neurology
1505 N Edgemont, 5th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Email: Annette.M.Langer-Gould@kp.org
Phone: (323) 804-4906
Fax: (626) 564-3409
To the editors:
We thank Drs. Simone and Mancusi for their thoughtful comments. We completely agree that perhaps the most important contribution of our study is the simple clinical and laboratory criteria we used to identify patients with COVID-19 who may benefit from anti-inflammatory treatments
As they eruditely point out, the stage of COVID-19 infection --ranging from early infection, to COVID-CS, to consolidated, irreversible tissue damage--appears to modify the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and immune potentiating treatments. This effect modification by stage needs to be reported, and carefully considered when extrapolating results from randomized controlled trials, case series and observational studies into clinical practice.
Annette Langer-Gould, MD PhD
Conflicts of Interests:
Annette Langer-Gould currently serves as a voting member on the California Technology Assessment Forum, a core program of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER). She has received sponsored and reimbursed travel from ICER.
References: None.