Short-term change in study measures between baseline visit (visit 1) and 1 day (visit 2) and 32 days (visit 3) after completing 7 days of high-dose oral corticosteroids (0.5 mg/kg)
| Measure | Count | Baseline absolute value | Visit 2 (1 day postintervention) | Visit 3* (32 days postintervention) | ||||
| Absolute value | Difference (95% CI) | P value | Absolute value | Difference (95% CI) | P value | |||
| Type-2 biomarkers | ||||||||
| Blood eosinophils (N/ul)† | 27 | 190 (100, 290) | 130 (100, 170) | −60 (−140 to 10) | 0.004 | 180 (110, 400) | −10 (−85 to 135) | 0.895 |
| Serum periostin (ng/mL)† | 29 | 48.2 (39.3, 55.1) | 39.8 (34.8, 50.5) | −8.4 (−11.6 to −2.8) | <0.001 | 47.5 (41.8, 57.7) | −0.7 (−4.2 to 5.3) | 0.469 |
| FeNO (ppb)† | 27 | 49.0 (18.0, 77.0) | 30.0 (17.0, 46.0) | −19.0 (−28.5 to -4.0) | <0.001 | 37.0 (22.0, 56.0) | −12.0 (−21.0 to 5.0) | 0.139 |
| Type-2 cytokines in serum | ||||||||
| IL-5 concentration (pg/mL)† | 18 | 0.22 (0.11, 0.54) | 0.05 (0.00, 0.14) | −0.17 (−0.28 to −0.08) | 0.002 | 0.27 (0.16, 0.49) | 0.05 (−0.07 to 0.28) | 0.913 |
| IL-13 concentration (pg/mL)† | 17 | 0.31 (0.19, 0.50) | 0.16 (0.11, 0.22) | −0.15 (−0.27 to −0.03) | 0.002 | 0.38 (0.32, 0.82) | 0.07 (−0.01 to 0.33) | 0.028 |
| Lung function | ||||||||
| FEV1 (L)‡ | 28 | 1.98 (0.55) | 2.14 (0.61) | 0.16 (0.05 to 0.27) | 0.005 | 1.95 (0.55) | −0.03 (−0.15 to 0.09) | 0.607 |
| FEV1 (% predicted)‡ | 28 | 64.0 (17.5) | 69.2 (18.4) | 5.2 (1.8 to 8.5) | 0.004 | 63.6 (18.8) | −0.4 (−4.1 to 3.4) | 0.848 |
| FVC (L)‡ | 28 | 3.11 (0.70) | 3.28 (0.75) | 0.16 (0.04 to 0.28) | 0.009 | 3.06 (0.73) | −0.06 (−0.21 to 0.10) | 0.460 |
| FVC (% predicted)‡ | 28 | 78.3 (14.4) | 82.1 (14.2) | 3.9 (1.1 to 6.7) | 0.009 | 77.0 (15.7) | −1.2 (−5.0 to 2.6) | 0.516 |
| Patient-reported outcomes | ||||||||
| ACQ score‡ | 30 | 3.0 (1.1) | 2.6 (1.2) | −0.3 (−0.7 to 0.0) | 0.045 | 3.2 (1.1) | 0.2 (−0.0 to 0.4) | 0.090 |
| AQLQ score | 30 | 3.9 (1.3) | 4.1 (1.4) | 0.2 (0.0 to 0.4) | 0.095 | 4.0 (1.3) | 0.1 (−0.1 to 0.2) | 0.514 |
Subjects with missing data at any of the short-term visits or who required additional rescue corticosteroids for exacerbation in addition to the study intervention were excluded.
Data are shown as median (IQR) or mean (SD) as appropriate.
*Except IL-5 and IL-13 where visit 4 (60 days postintervention) is presented.
†Median (IQR).
‡Mean (SD).