Nintedanib vs pirfenidone in the management of COVID-19 lung fibrosis: A single-centre study

Background: COVID-19 pneumonia is complicated with residual lung fibrosis, as evidenced by imaging and postmortem pathological findings. In addition to steroids, we compared the efficacy of nintedanib and pirfenidone in the management of COVID-19 lung fibrosis measured by CT severity score (CTSS). Methods: All cases of COVID-19 pneumonia diagnosed as COVID-19 positive by RT-PCR having SpO 2 ⩽ 96% and CTSS ⩾ 10 even after 15 days were included in the study. The patients were divided into three groups. All three groups received steroids at a dose of 1 mg/kg body weight of prednisolone or equivalent. The first group received steroids alone, the second group received pirfenidone with steroids and the third group received nintedanib with steroids. All patients were followed up at 6 and 12 weeks. The primary endpoint of our study was to find out any improvement in CTSS. Results: Out of 90 patients, 56 patients completed the study. Among three groups, 19 (33.9%) patients received steroids (control) only, 16 (28.6%) patients received steroids with pirfenidone and 21 (37.5%) patients received steroids with nintedanib. The study population had a mean (±SD) age of 52.5 ± 10.1 years, mean (±SD) C-reactive protein of 97.1 ± 102.2 mg/L (normal <6 mg/L), mean (±SD) serum ferritin 459.4 ± 305.5 ng/mL (normal <250 ng/mL), mean (±SD) serum d-dimer level 2.1 ± 2.6 μg/mL (normal <0.5 μg/mL) and mean (±SD) CTSS of 16.9 ± 4.3. There was significant improvement in CTSS in group receiving nintedanib compared to pirfenidone at 12 weeks (3.67 ± 1.21 vs 9.07 ± 1.12) with a p-value <0.01. Conclusion: Along with steroids in the treatment of COVID-19 lung fibrosis, there was a significant improvement in lung CTSS with nintedanib compared to pirfenidone.