Statistical analyses
SECONDARY
The sample size was calculated based on the total duration of PSL treatment. Alpha (one-sided) = 0.05 with a non-inferiority margin of 7 days was employed assuming that the treatment duration in the experimental group was identical to that in the control group, with a standard deviation (SD) of 12 days [For the efficacy measures, including both primary and secondary outcomes, analyses were undertaken on the full analysis set. In the case of missing indicators of outcomes, multiple imputation methods were used to fill in the missing values [For continuous variables, mean and SD were used for data with a normal distribution, while median and interquartile range were used for variables with a non-normal distribution (P25, P75). Student’s The principal endpoint was assessed by estimating the between-group difference in treatment duration using Student’s 