The effect of corticosteroid treatment on patients with coronavirus infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

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The effect of corticosteroid treatment on patients with coronavirus infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

J Infect. 2020 Apr 10;:

Authors: Yang Z, Liu J, Zhou Y, Zhao X, Zhao Q, Liu J

Abstract
OBJECTIVES: An outbreak of novel coronavirus in 2019 threatens the health of people, and there is no proven pharmacological treatment. Although corticosteroids were widely used during outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, their efficacy remains highly controversial. We aimed to further evaluate the influence of corticosteroids on patients with coronavirus infection.
METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive literature search from January 1, 2002 to March 15, 2020 in the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, and China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI). All statistical analyses in this study were performed on stata14.0.
RESULTS: A total of 5270 patients from 15 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The result indicated that critical patients were more likely to require corticosteroids therapy (risk ratio [RR]=1.56, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.28-1.90, P<0.001). However, corticosteroid treatment was associated with higher mortality (RR=2.11, 95%CI=1.13-3.94, P=0.019), longer length of stay (weighted mean difference [WMD]=6.31, 95%CI=5.26-7.37, P<0.001), a higher rate of bacterial infection (RR=2.08, 95%CI=1.54-2.81, P<0.001), and hypokalemia (RR=2.21, 95%CI=1.07-4.55, P=0.032) but not hyperglycemia (RR=1.37, 95%CI=0.68-2.76, P=0.376) or hypocalcemia (RR=1.35, 95%CI=0.77-2.37, P=0.302).
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with severe conditions are more likely to require corticosteroids. Corticosteroid use is associated with increased mortality in patients with coronavirus pneumonia.

PMID: 32283144 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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