Table 1.

Baseline clinical characteristics of study patients treated with corticosteroids compared to those treated with usual care alone.

Variables	Patients treated with corticosteroids n = 37	Patients treated with placebo n = 14	P value
Age^a	49.0 ± 17.3	54.1 ± 17.6	0.35
Sex^b (men/women)	19/18	9/14	0.53
APACHE 3^a	59.1 ± 16.0	63.9 ± 21.8	0.40
PaO2/FiO2 day 0^a	116.5 ± 54.4	118.6 ± 30.9	0.89
WBC^a (× 10³/mm³)	15.7 ± 6.5	15.2 ± 9.3	0.85
Hospital mortality (%)^b	7/37 (19)	5/14 (36)	0.27

Summary data displayed as mean ± sd,

– t-test,

– Fisher’s exact test