Nitric oxide boosts oxygen in pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia

Inhaled high-dose nitric oxide (INO200) safely shortened time on supplemental oxygen and hospital stays among pregnant women diagnosed as having severe bilateral COVID-19 pneumonia, suggests a new study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers.COVID-19 pneumonia is an especially dire diagnosis for pregnant women because it can rapidly lower oxygen in the blood and body tissues, requiring hospital admission and cardiopulmonary support, first author Carlo Valsecchi, MD, said in an MGH news release."Pregnant women are three times more likely to need intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation, or advanced life support, and four times more likely to die," he said. "They also face a greater risk of obstetric complications such as preeclampsia, preterm delivery, and stillbirth."Less need for extra oxygen, fewer ICU daysThe retrospective study, published late last week in Obstetrics & Gynecology, involved 71 pregnant women hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia at one of four major medical centers in Boston from March 2020 to December 2021.

Soon after admission, 20 patients received INO200 twice a day for 30 minutes, while the remaining 51 received standard care.

INO200 treatment was available only at MGH.INO is a gas used to treat severely low oxygen levels in intubated patients diagnosed as having respiratory failure caused by conditions such as COVID-19.

It is usually given in doses of 10 to 80 parts per million (ppm), but in this study, a median of 190 ppm was given per treatment.INO200 recipients didn't require oxygen for as many days as their standard-care counterparts (median days, 22 vs 24).