Introduction Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the reason for the global pandemic that started from Wuhan, China, in December 2019, known as coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) Acute respiratory distress syndrome happened in COVID-19 not just because of uncontrolled viral replication but also because of an uncontrolled immune reaction from the host That's why antiviral and anti-inflammatory treatments have become an increasing concern for clinicians Methods A retrospective quasi-experimental study design was used to assess the effectiveness of methylprednisolone and dexamethasone in the improvement of PaO2/FiO(2) (P/F) ratio in COVID-19 patients We included 60 participants for this study by using a convenient sampling technique and divided them into two groups with 30 patients in each group Group 1 was given dexamethasone 8 mg twice daily, and group 1 given methylprednisolone 40 mg twice daily for eight days We recorded C-reactive protein (CRP), serum ferritin level, and P/F ratio before administration of both drugs and after administration of drugs for eight days We used the paired t-test to assess the effect of both drugs on the P/F ratio of participants Results The initial mean CRP in group 1 was 110 34, which reduced to 19 45 after administration of dexamethasone;similarly, the CRP in group 2 was 108 65, which reduced to 43 82 after administering methylprednisolone for eight days In P/F ratio improvement, the calculated significance value for dexamethasone (p=0 000) was less than the table value at 0 05 in all sections, p-value for methylprednisolone (p=0 009) was also less than the table value at 0 05, which shows that both dexamethasone and methylprednisolone were effective in improving P/F ratio Calculated p-value for dexamethasone (p=0 000) was lower than the calculated p-value for methylprednisolone (p=0 009), which shows that dexamethasone is more effective as compare to methylprednisolone Conclusions Steroid therapy is effective in controlling inflammation markers, and especially dexamethasone is significantly effective in improving the P/F ratio in COVID-19 patients
Comparison of Efficacy of Dexamethasone and Methylprednisolone in Improving PaO2/FiO2 Ratio Among COVID-19 Patients