Table 1.

Clinical, radiological, and laboratory data in the “early hydrocortisone” treated group vs. “placebo” group

	Early hydrocortisone	Placebo
Number of cases	9	7
Mean age (years)	35	34
Male:female	1:3.5	1:2.5
Cases given methylprednisolone (number)	4	6
Total methylprednisolone dosage (g)	2.2	1.8
Initial extent of pulmonary infiltrate (%) [95% CI]	1.48 [0.43–2.53]	1.67 [0.26–3.07]
Peak extent of pulmonary infiltrate (%) [95% CI]	4.54 [2.06–7.02]	5.00 [2.19–7.81]
Initial lymphocyte count (109 L−1) [95% CI]	0.83 [0.56–1.10]	0.7 [0.56–0.84]
Nadir lymphocyte count (109 L−1) [95% CI]	0.49 [0.32–0.66]	0.36 [0.20–0.52]
Initial LDH level (IU/L) [95% CI]	208.33 [181.89–234.77]	193.43 [125.27–261.59]
Peak LDH level (IU/L) [95% CI]	346.44 [241.23–451.66]	346.14 [170.10–522.19]
Peak CRP level (mg/L) [95% CI]	34.89 [11.99–57.79]	35.33 [10.01–69.65]
Cases with positive RT-PCR result on respiratory/stool specimens (%)	5 (55.6)	3 (42.9)
Cases with positive RT-PCR result on respiratory specimens (%)	4 (44.4)	2 (28.6)

LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; CRP, C-reactive protein; RT-PCR, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.