Early high dose corticosteroid therapy in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome: a propensity score matched study

BACKGROUND: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is one of the pulmonary complications after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HSCT) with a poor prognosis. The effects of corticosteroid therapy in HSCT patients with ARDS have never been described. In this study, we aim to evaluate the effect of corticosteroid on hospital mortality and other outcomes in patients with HSCT and ARDS. METHODS: In this bicenter retrospective study, data were collected from patients diagnosed with ARDS and HSCT. Patients were divided into an early high dose steroids group (receiving a cumulative dose ⩾480 mg of methylprednisolone or its equivalent within the first 3 days after ARDS onset) and a no early high dose steroids group. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine the risk factors of hospital mortality. Cox regression was performed to assess the effect of early high dose steroids on patient survival. A propensity score matched cohort was built to validate the results from the original study cohort. RESULTS: Two hundred and sixty-four patients were included in the original study cohort; 89 (33.71%) patients received early high dose steroids; these patients had higher ventilator free days at day 28 (7.68 ± 4.32 versus 6.48 ± 4.76, p = 0.046); there was no difference in hospital mortality (64.04% versus 53.14%, p = 0.091). Patients with early high dose steroids had a higher incidence of new onset bacteremia (17.98% versus 4%, p < 0.001) and viremia (13.48% versus 3.43%, p = 0.002). The results were further confirmed in the propensity score matched cohort, except for the improvement of ventilator free days (6.02 ± 5.51 versus 5.57 ± 5.54, p = 0.643). CONCLUSION: In this cohort of HSCT patients with ARDS, early high dose coticosteroids had no effect on hospital mortality. In addition, the incidences of new onset bacteremia and viremia were increased after early high dose steroids. The reviews of this paper are available via the supplemental material section.