Heterogeneous treatment effects of dexamethasone 12 mg versus 6 mg in patients with COVID-19 and severe hypoxaemia—Post hoc exploratory analyses of the COVID STEROID 2 trial

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  • Anders Granholm
  • Marie Warrer Munch
  • Nina Andersen-Ranberg
  • Sheila Nainan Myatra
  • Bharath Kumar Tirupakuzhi Vijayaraghavan
  • Balasubramanian Venkatesh
  • Vivekanand Jha
  • Rebecka Rubenson Wahlin
  • Stephan M. Jakob
  • Luca Cioccari
  • Møller, Morten Hylander
  • Perner, Anders

Background: Corticosteroids improve outcomes in patients with severe COVID-19. In the COVID STEROID 2 randomised clinical trial, we found high probabilities of benefit with dexamethasone 12 versus 6 mg daily. While no statistically significant heterogeneity in treatment effects (HTE) was found in the conventional, dichotomous subgroup analyses, these analyses have limitations, and HTE could still exist. Methods: We assessed whether HTE was present for days alive without life support and mortality at Day 90 in the trial according to baseline age, weight, number of comorbidities, category of respiratory failure (type of respiratory support system and oxygen requirements) and predicted risk of mortality using an internal prediction model. We used flexible models for continuous variables and logistic regressions for categorical variables without dichotomisation of the baseline variables of interest. HTE was assessed both visually and with p and S values from likelihood ratio tests. Results: There was no strong evidence for substantial HTE on either outcome according to any of the baseline variables assessed with all p values >.37 (and all S values <1.43) in the planned analyses and no convincingly strong visual indications of HTE. Conclusions: We found no strong evidence for HTE with 12 versus 6 mg dexamethasone daily on days alive without life support or mortality at Day 90 in patients with COVID-19 and severe hypoxaemia, although these results cannot rule out HTE either.

Original languageEnglish
JournalActa Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica
Volume67
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)195-205
Number of pages11
ISSN0001-5172
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation.

    Research areas

  • corticosteroids, COVID-19, critical illness, days alive without life support, hypoxaemia, mortality

ID: 338308809