Trial reportWiener klinische Wochenschrift2021
Methylprednisolone in adults hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia : An open-label randomized trial (GLUCOCOVID).
Trial report in Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 23 of them syntheses 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
116 citing papers in PubMed, 23 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 170 citations in OpenAlex.
- Low-dose corticosteroids in severe pulmonary infection: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.BMJ open respiratory research · 2026Pooled it
- Corticosteroids for treating sepsis in children and adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of glucocorticoids in the treatment of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of glucocorticoids use in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and network meta‑analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Pooled it
- Higher- versus Lower-Dose Corticosteroids for Severe to Critical COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-analysis.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness of corticosteroids to treat coronavirus disease 2019 symptoms: A meta-analysis.Medicina clinica · 2022Pooled it
- The relationship between pragmatism, timing, and study size on impact of randomized trials: a qualitative, hypothesis generating study of trials of systemic corticosteroids for COVID-19.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2022Pooled it
- Systemic corticosteroids for the treatment of COVID-19: Equity-related analyses and update on evidence.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- The roles of methylprednisolone treatment in patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Steroids · 2022Pooled it
- Bias as a source of inconsistency in ivermectin trials for COVID-19: A systematic review. Ivermectin's suggested benefits are mainly based on potentially biased results.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2022Pooled it
- Comparative effectiveness of pharmacological interventions on mortality and the average length of hospital stay of patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Expert review of anti-infective therapy · 2022Pooled it
- Systemic administration of glucocorticoids, cardiovascular complications and mortality in patients hospitalised with COVID-19, SARS, MERS or influenza: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials.Pharmacological research · 2022Pooled it
- Use of steroids in COVID-19 patients: A meta-analysis.European journal of pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of different corticosteroid therapy on severe COVID-19 patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Expert review of respiratory medicine · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review Assessing the Underrepresentation of Cancer Patients in COVID-19 Trials.Acta haematologica · 2022Pooled it
- The impact of therapeutics on mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19: systematic review and meta-analyses informing the European Respiratory Society living guideline.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2021Guideline
- Clinical trials in COVID-19 management & prevention: A meta-epidemiological study examining methodological quality.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Effectiveness of corticosteroids to treat severe COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies.International immunopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Systemic corticosteroids for the treatment of COVID-19.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo determine whether a 6-day course of methylprednisolone (MP) improves outcome in patients with severe SARS-CoV‑2 (Corona Virus Disease 2019 [COVID-19]).
methodsThe study was a multicentric open-label trial of COVID-19 patients who were aged ≥ 18 years, receiving oxygen without mechanical ventilation, and with evidence of systemic inflammatory response who were assigned to standard of care (SOC) or SOC plus intravenous MP (40 mg bid for 3 days followed by 20 mg bid for 3 days). The primary outcome was a composite of death, admission to the intensive care unit, or requirement for noninvasive ventilation. Both intention-to-treat (ITT) and per protocol (PP) analyses were performed.
resultsA total of 91 patients were screened, and 64 were randomized (mean age70 ± 12 years). In the ITT analysis, 14 of 29 patients (48%) in the SOC group and 14 of 35 (40%) in the MP group suffered the composite endpoint (40% versus 20% in patients under 72 years and 67% versus 48% in those over 72 years; p = 0.25). In the PP analysis, patients on MP had a significantly lower risk of experiencing the composite endpoint (age-adjusted risk ratio 0.42; 95% confidence interval, CI 0.20-0.89; p = 0.043).
conclusionThe planned sample size was not achieved, and our results should therefore be interpreted with caution. The use of MP had no significant effect on the primary endpoint in ITT analysis; however, the PP analysis showed a beneficial effect due to MP, which consistent with other published trials support the use of glucocorticoids in severe cases of COVID-19.
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.