(18 Sep 2020) Corticosteroids- not beneficial at later stage in old population

Association between corticosteroids and intubation or death among patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in non-ICU settings: an observational study using of real-world data from 51 hospitals in France and Luxembourg

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.16.20195750v1

Among the 891 patients included in the analysis, 203 were assigned to the CTC group. At day 28, corticosteroids did not reduce the rate of the primary outcome (wHR 0.92, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.39) nor the cumulative death rate (wHR 1.03, 95% CI 0.54 to 1.98). Corticosteroids significantly reduced the rate of the primary outcome for patients requiring oxygen ≥ at 3L/min (wHR 0.50, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.85) or C-Reactive Protein (CRP) ≥ 100mg/L (wHR 0.44, 95%CI 0.23 to 0.85). We found a higher number of hyperglycaemia events among patients who received corticosteroids, but number of infections were similar across the two groups. We found no association between the use of corticosteroids and intubation or death in the broad population of patients ≤80 years old with COVID-19 hospitalized in non-ICU settings. However, the treatment was beneficial for patients with ≥ 3L/min oxygen or CRP ≥ 100mg/L at baseline. These data support the need to confirm the right timing of corticosteroids for patients with mild COVID.