Review | Total no. of studies (no. of included RCTs) | Populations of interest in primary studies | Primary outcome | Results | Comments on subgroup analyses |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Meduri et al. 200815 | 5 (5) | Acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome | Mortality | RR 0.76 (0.62–0.93) | Size of primary studies, no interaction test |
Peter et al. 200816 | 5 (5) addressed therapeutic use | Acute respiratory distress syndrome or patients at risk of syndrome | Mortality | OR 0.62 (0.23–1.26) | Timing, dose and year of study completion not significant |
Lamontagne et al. 200917 | 12 (12) | Acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, severe pneumonia | Mortality | RR 0.84 (0.66–1.06) | 9 trials of low-dose corticosteroids RR 0.68 (0.49–0.96); p = 0.047 |
Tang et al. 200918 | 9 (4) | Acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome | Mortality | RCTs RR 0.51 (0.24–1.09) | Timing, tapering, drug formulation, year of study completion, crossover design not significant |
Agarwal et al. 200719 | 6 (4) | Acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome | Mortality | Early acute respiratory distress synrome OR 0.57 (0.25–1.32) Late acute respiratory distress syndrome OR 0.58 (0.22–1.53)* | Not available |
Note: OR = odds ratio, RCT = randomized control trial, RR = relative risk.
↵* The authors only reported analyses resulting from statistical pooling of observational and experimental studies.