Interventions
- Patients were randomized 1:1 to treatment arms:
- Dexamethasone 40 mg PO daily for 4 days
- Prednisone 1 mg/kg/day for 4 weeks followed by taper
- In the high-dose dexamethasone arm, an additional 4-day course of dexamethasone was given if platelet count remained < 30,000 or there were bleeding symptoms by day 10
- In the prednisone arm, prednisone was tapered after 4 weeks in responders. The taper schedule was determined by treating clinicians but was supposed to be over 4-6 weeks.
- Requirement for additional ITP-modifying intervention during follow-up was considered treatment failure
