Trial reportBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2020
Sex-based differences in the response to dexamethasone in bacterial meningitis: Analysis of the European dexamethasone in adulthood bacterial meningitis study.
Trial report in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex differences in bacterial meningitis and associations with socioeconomic indicators: a systematic review and meta-analysis with metaregression.BMJ global health · 2025Pooled it
- Sex-based differences in the response to dexamethasone in bacterial meningitis: Analysis of the European dexamethasone in adulthood bacterial meningitis study.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2020Trial
- Fatal inflammation: understanding meningitis mortality in the United States (1999-2020).BMC neurology · 2026Observational
- The evolving burden of childhood meningitis in low- and middle-income countries, 1990-2021: a decomposition and frontier analysis.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Article
- Predictive value of inflammatory factors on the efficacy of adjuvant Dexamethasone in the treatment of refractory purulent meningitis among pediatric patients.Journal of medical biochemistry · 2024Article
- Characteristics and prognostic factors of bacterial meningitis in the intensive care unit: a prospective nationwide cohort study.Annals of intensive care · 2023Article
- Sex and Gender Differences in Bacterial Infections.Infection and immunity · 2022Review
- Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Inflammatory markers have been found at higher concentrations in women than men with bacterial meningitis. To investigate sex-based differences in the response to dexamethasone, we performed a post hoc analysis of a double-blind, randomised multicentre trial of dexamethasone (10 mg, 4 times daily for 4 days) vs placebo in adults with bacterial meningitis. The primary outcome measure was the Glasgow outcome scale score at 8 weeks and interaction tests were used to examine subgroup differences. Between June 1993 and December 2001, 301 patients (56% male) were randomly assigned to a treatment group: 157 received dexamethasone and 144 placebo. Although dexamethasone reduced the risk of unfavourable outcome to a greater extent in women (relative risk [RR] 0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.21-0.86, P = .02) than men (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.41-1.51, P = .55), on interaction testing (ratio of RR women:men 0.53, 95% CI 0.20-1.39, P = .19) patient sex was not a significant modifier of the effect of dexamethasone.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.