Table 1.

Clinical demographics of patients in the plasma‐treated and steroid‐treated groups

	Plasma group a	Steroid group b	p
No. of patients	19	21
Age (years)	38.7 ± 12.39	47.9 ± 19.60	0.087
Admission LDH (IU/L)	256.1 ± 90.75	247.7 ± 94.58	0.7
Co‐morbidities c	1 (DM, old TB)	1 SLE, 2 DM with old TB, 4 hypertension, 1 atrial fibrillation	0.05

^a Three doses of methylprednisolone, followed by convalescent plasma.

^b Four or more doses of methylprednisolone.

^c Two patients were hepatitis B carriers (one in each group), but without clinical evidence of cirrhosis; they were not considered as having co‐morbidities.

DM, diabetes mellitus; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus; TB, tuberculosis.