Table 7– Treatment during acute exacerbation (AE) and in-hospital outcome of patients with AE according to treatment

Treatment regimen	Cases	Survival	p-value
Steroid pulse^#	13 (14.4)	7 (53.8)	0.933
Steroid pulse^# plus cytotoxic agent^¶	8 (8.9)	4 (50.0)
High-dose steroid⁺	46 (51.1)	19 (41.3)
High-dose steroid⁺ plus cytotoxic agent^¶	14 (15.6)	11 (78.6)
Low-dose steroid^§	6 (6.7)	3 (50.0)
Low-dose steroid^§ plus cytotoxic agent^¶	1 (1.1)	1 (100.0)
No treatment	2 (2.2)	0
Total	90 (100)	45 (50)

Data are presented as n (%) unless otherwise stated. ^#: steroid pulse was ≥500 mg·day⁻¹ methylprednisolone for 3 days, followed by high-dose steroid; ^¶: cytotoxic agents were azathioprine, cyclosporine or cyclophosphamide; ⁺: high-dose steroid was ≥0.5 mg·kg⁻¹·day⁻¹ prednisolone; ^§: low-dose steroid was ≤0.5 mg·kg⁻¹·day⁻¹ prednisolone.