id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-297210-b8bl5vq5	Leask, Andrew	COVID-19: is fibrosis the killer?	2020-05-13		.txt	text/plain	482	34	53	Patients that died had elevated IL-6 levels and acute respiratory distress syndrome. COVID-19 patients developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a disease that is characterized by rapid onset fibrosis. Moreover, the authors reported that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was cormorbid with COVID-19 (p = 0.056). Levels of interleukin (IL)-6, a proinflammatory cytokine linked with connective tissue disorders including fibrosis, were significantly higher in patients who died, and appeared to increase with disease progression. These data strongly imply that not only is pulmonary fibrosis a comorbidity for COVID-19, but that it may be the cause of mortality for COVID-19. In any event, these data strongly support the contention that development of anti-fibrotic agents is imperative not only to affect diseases such as scleroderma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Duchenne's muscular dystrophy and metastatic cancers, but is also necessary to treat COVID-19. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study	./cache/cord-297210-b8bl5vq5.txt	./txt/cord-297210-b8bl5vq5.txt