INTRODUCTION
respiratory failure, pulmonary inflammation, hypoxaemia
RESPIRATORY FAILURE, CRITICAL ILLNESS, CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019, PULMONARY INFLAMMATION
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) may cause critical illness and high mortality rates due to severe pulmonary inflammation and hypoxaemia.In the COVID STEROID 2 randomised controlled trial, we assessed 12 versus 6 mg of dexamethasone for patients with COVID‐19 and severe hypoxaemia and found high probabilities of benefit from the higher dose for all outcomes assessed up until Day 90; long‐term outcomes were similarly mostly compatible with benefit, albeit not reaching the thresholds for statistical significance.Despite probable overall benefits with a higher dose, heterogeneous treatment effects (HTE)In this post hoc exploratory sub‐study of the COVID STEROID 2 trial, we aimed to assess whether HTE with two different doses of dexamethasone was present for the number of days alive without life support and mortality at Day 90 according to four baseline characteristics (age, weight, category of respiratory failure and number of comorbidities) and the predicted risk of 90‐day mortality, all assessed without dichotomisation of the variables included or the conclusions.