TABLE 3.
The effect of glucocorticoids on influencing probability of the therapeutic window of VRC.
| Group | Cmin/dose level n (%) | p a | p b | p c | p d | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subtherapeutic [<1.25 (mg l−1)/(mg d−1)] | Therapeutic [1.25, 12.5] (mg l−1)/(mg·d−1) | Supratherapeutic [>12.5 (mg l−1)/(mg d−1)] | |||||
| Non-comedication with glucocorticoids (N = 348) | 26 (7.5%) | 256 (73.6%) | 66 (19.0%) | ||||
| Concomitant with glucocorticoids (N = 570) | |||||||
| DEX (N = 334) | 55 (16.5%) | 259 (77.5%) | 20 (6.0%) | ˂0.001 | ˂0.001 | 0.247 | ˂0.001 |
| PRE/MET (N = 134) | 14 (10.5%) | 109 (81.3%) | 11 (8.2%) | 0.012 | 0.356 | 0.077 | 0.005 |
| DEX + PRE/MET (N = 102) | 13 (12.8%) | 78 (76.5%) | 11 (10.8%) | 0.058 | 0.106 | 0.608 | 0.072 |
DEX: dexamethasone; PRE: prednisone/prednisolone; and MET: methylprednisolone.
p a was calculated comparing the group of concomitants with DEX or PRE/MET or DEX + PRE/MET with the group of non-comedication with glucocorticoids by the chi-squared test.
p b–d were the values of subtherapeutic/therapeutic/supratherapeutic Cmin/dose level compared to the group of concomitants with DEX or PRE/MET or DEX + PRE/MET and the group of non-comedication with glucocorticoids by the chi-squared test, respectively.