To evaluate whether a high cumulative dose of systemic hydrocortisone affects brain development compared with placebo when initiated between 7 and 14 days after birth in ventilated infants born preterm.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial was conducted in 16 neonatal intensive care units among infants born at <30 weeks of gestation or with a birth weight of <1250 g who were ventilator-dependent in the second week after birth. Three centers performed MRI at term-equivalent age. Brain injury was assessed on MRI using the Kidokoro scoring system and compared between the 2 treatment groups. Both total and regional brain volumes were calculated using an automatic segmentation method and compared using multivariable regression analysis adjusted for baseline variables.

From the 3 centers, 78 infants participated in the study and 59 had acceptable MRI scans (hydrocortisone group, n = 31; placebo group, n = 28). Analyses of the median global brain abnormality score of the Kidokoro score showed no difference between the hydrocortisone and placebo groups (median, 7; IQR, 5-9 vs median, 8, IQR, 4-10, respectively; P = .92). In 39 infants, brain tissue volumes were measured, showing no differences in the adjusted mean total brain tissue volumes, at 352 ± 32 mL in the hydrocortisone group and 364 ± 51 mL in the placebo group (P = .80).

Systemic hydrocortisone started in the second week after birth in ventilator-dependent infants born very preterm was not found to be associated with significant differences in brain development compared with placebo treatment.

The SToP-BPD study was registered with the Netherlands Trial Register (NTR2768; registered on 17 February 2011; 2640) and the European Union Clinical Trials Register (EudraCT, 2010-023777-19; registered on 2 November 2010; NL).