Corticosteroid Therapy for Critically Ill Patients with the MERS

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov November 23, 2017

Corticosteroid therapy in patients with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was not associated with a difference in mortality after adjustment for time-varying confounders, but was associated with delayed MERS coronavirus RNA clearance. These findings highlight the challenges and importance of adjusting for baseline and time-varying confounders when estimating clinical effects of treatments using observational studies. Of 309 patients, 151 received corticosteroids. Corticosteroids were initiated at a median of 3.0 days (Quartile Q1, 3: 1.0, 7.0) from ICU admission.