Corticosteroid therapy for corona virus disease 2019-related acute respiratory distress syndrome: a cohort study with propensity score analysis

Background The impact of corticosteroid therapy on outcomes of patients with Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is highly controversial. We aimed to compare the risk of death between COVID-19-related ARDS patients with corticosteroid treatment and those without. Methods In this single-centre retrospective observational study, patients with ARDS caused by COVID-19 between 24 December 2019 and 24 February 2020 were enrolled. The primary outcome was 60-day in-hospital death. The exposure was prescribed systemic corticosteroids or not. Time-dependent Cox regression models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for 60-day in-hospital mortality. Results A total of 382 patients including 226 (59.2%) patients who received systemic corticosteroids and 156 (40.8%) patients with standard treatment were analyzed. The maximum dose of corticosteroids was 80.0 (IQR 40.0–80.0) mg equivalent methylprednisolone per day, and duration of corticosteroid treatment was 7.0 (4.0–12.0) days in total. In Cox regression analysis using corticosteroid treatment as a time-varying variable, corticosteroid treatment was associated with a significant reduction in risk of in-hospital death within 60 days (HR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.25, 0.93; p = 0.0285). The association remained significantly after adjusting for age, sex, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score at hospital admission, propensity score of corticosteroid treatment, and comorbidities (HR: 0.51; CI: 0.27, 0.99; p = 0.0471). Corticosteroids were not associated with delayed viral RNA clearance in our cohort. Conclusion In this clinical practice setting, low-to-moderate dose corticosteroid treatment was associated with reduced risk of death in COVID-19 patients who developed ARDS.