Prehospital use of inhaled steroids and incidence of acute lung injury among patients at risk.

Purpose: Inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) attenuated lung injury in animal studies. We investigated the association between prehospital ICS and incidence of acute lung injury (ALI) among patients at risk.

Methods: In this ancillary analysis of the large multicenter Lung Injury Prediction Study cohort, we developed a propensity score for prehospital ICS use followed by matching, for all patients and for a subgroup of patients with at least 1 risk factor for direct pulmonary injury. The primary outcome was ALI; secondary outcomes included acute respiratory distress syndrome, need for invasive mechanical ventilation, and hospital mortality.

Results: Of the 5126 patients, 401 (8%) were using ICS. Acute lung injury developed in 343 (7%). The unadjusted incidence of ALI was 4.7% vs 6.9% (P = .12) among those in ICS compared with non-ICS group. In the "direct" lung injury subgroup, the unadjusted incidence of ALI was 4.1% vs 10.6% (P = 0.006). After propensity matching, the estimated effect for ALI in the whole cohort was 0.69 (95% confidence interval, 0.39-1.2; P = .18), and that in the direct subgroup was 0.56 (95% confidence interval, 0.22-1.46; P = .24).

Conclusions: Preadmission use of ICS in a hospitalized population of patients at risk for ALI was not significantly associated with a lower incidence of ALI once controlled by comprehensive propensity-matched analysis.