The DART Study of Low-Dose Dexamethasone Therapy: In Reply

We thank Rademaker et al for their thoughtful response to our follow-up report of the DART (Dexamethasone: A Randomized Trial) study.1 They are concerned, quite correctly, about the issue of corticosteroid exposure outside the protocol; when this occurs in the control group after enrollment, it is referred to as “contamination.” Contamination was an issue for most of the >40 reported randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) of postnatal corticosteroids. The fact that some in the control group also received corticosteroids meant that the trial was less likely to find differences between the 2 groups. The DART study did show differences even …