3.4 Corticosteroids and sNOX2-dp
At hospital admission, patients disclosed elevated levels of serum sNOX2-dp, that correlated with baseline hs-cTnT (Rs: 0.464; p value <0.001) and with maximum levels of hs-cTnT (Rs: 0.525; p value <0.001); sNox2 decreased at hospital discharge (27 [17-41] vs. 22[15-33] pg/ml; p value <0.001).
A MANOVA analysis showed that sNox2-dp decreased over time more in corticosteroid-treated patients compared to not-treated ones, also after adjusting for possible confounding factors (age, PSI classes, COPD, AF, smoking habit) (F=7.9; p value =0.005) (Figure 4A).
After dividing the whole cohort in patients with or without troponin elevation, the effect of corticosteroid treatment over time on sNOX2-dp remained significant in patients with hs-cTnT>0.014 µg/L (F=6.4, p=0.012) (Figure 4B) but not in patients with hs-cTnT≤0.014 µg/L (F=1.3; p=0.261) (Figure 4C).