International Journal of General Medicine (Aug 2022)

No Impact of Corticosteroid Use During the Acute Phase on Persistent Symptoms Post-COVID-19

  • Chan Sui Ko A,
  • Candellier A,
  • Mercier M,
  • Joseph C,
  • Carette H,
  • Basille D,
  • Lion-Daolio S,
  • Devaux S,
  • Schmit JL,
  • Lanoix JP,
  • Andrejak C

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 6645 – 6651

Abstract

Read online

Adrien Chan Sui Ko,1,* Alexandre Candellier,2,* Marie Mercier,3 Cedric Joseph,1 Hortense Carette,3 Damien Basille,3 Sylvie Lion-Daolio,4 Stephanie Devaux,3 Jean-Luc Schmit,1 Jean-Philippe Lanoix,1 Claire Andrejak3 1Department of Infectious Diseases, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, 80054, France; 2Department of Nephrology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, 80054, France; 3Department of Pneumology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, 80054, France; 4Department of Orthopedy, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, 80054, France*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Adrien Chan Sui Ko, Department of Infectious Diseases, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, 80054, France, Email [email protected]: Persistent COVID-19 symptoms may be related to residual inflammation, but no preventive treatment has been evaluated. This study aimed to analyze, in a prospective cohort, whether corticosteroid use in the acute phase of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients may reduce the risk of persistent COVID-19 symptoms. A total of 306 discharged patients, including 112 (36.6%) from the ICU, completed a structured face-to-face assessment 4 months after admission. Of these, 193 patients (63.1%) had at least one persistent symptom, mostly dyspnea (38.9%) and asthenia (37.6%). One-hundred and four patients have received corticosteroids. In multivariable adjusted regression analysis, corticosteroid use was not associated with the presence of at least one symptom (OR=1.00, 95% CI: 0.58– 1.71, p=0.99) or with the number of persistent symptoms (p=0.74). Corticosteroid use remained ineffective when analyzing the ICU subpopulation separately. Our study suggests that corticosteroid use had no impact on persistent symptoms after COVID-19 in discharged patients.Keywords: COVID-19, persistent symptoms, corticosteroid use, long COVID-19, asthenia

Keywords