Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37899703›Full record

ArticleScience progress

Secondary infections in critically ill patients with COVID-19 receiving steroid therapy.

Alex K Pearce, Qais Zawaydeh, W Cameron McGuire, Abdurrahman Husain, Claudia Ayoub, Daniel A Sweeney, Shannon A Cotton, Atul Malhotra

Open access · diamondAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Science progress. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.2field-weighted citation impact, top 46% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.

Alex K PearceDivision of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine and Physiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1226-0403
Qais ZawaydehDepartment of Internal Medicine, Eisenhower Health, Palm Springs, CA, USA.
W Cameron McGuireDivision of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine and Physiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Abdurrahman HusainDivision of Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine, Texas A&M School of Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
Claudia AyoubDepartment of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA.
Daniel A SweeneyDivision of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine and Physiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Shannon A CottonDivision of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine and Physiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Atul MalhotraDivision of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine and Physiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
University of California San Diego · USBaylor University Medical Center · USEisenhower Medical Center · USUniversity of Mississippi Medical Center · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Secondary infections can occur during or after the treatment of an initial infection. Glucocorticoids may decrease mortality in patients with severe COVID-19; however, risk of secondary infection is not well described. Our primary objective was to investigate the risk of secondary infection among critically ill patients with COVID-19 treated with glucocorticoids. We examined patients with COVID-19 being treated in the intensive care unit at two academic medical centers from 1 to 7/2020. One hundred-seven patients were included. Of these, 31 received steroids and 76 patients did not. Analysis of the larger cohort was performed followed by a matched pairs analysis of 22 steroid and 22 non-steroid patients. Secondary infection was seen in 14 patients (45.2%) receiving steroids compared to 35(46.1%) not receiving steroids (p = 0.968). Secondary infections were most frequently encountered in the respiratory tract. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were the most frequently identified organisms. Mortality was 16.1% in the steroid-treated group compared to 23.7% in the control group (p = 0.388). After performing matched pairs analysis and multivariable logistic regression there was no significant difference between secondary infection or mortality and steroid receipt. Secondary infections were common among critically ill patients with COVID-19, but the incidence of secondary infection was not significantly impacted by steroid treatment.

Indexed as

CoinfectionCOVID-19Critical IllnessHumansSARS-CoV-2SteroidsSteroidscoronavirus disease 2019critical care outcomesIntensive care unitsecondary infectionsteroids

Identifiers

PMID37899703
PMCPMC10617276
OpenAlexW4388013987

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.