Dexamethasone in Tick-borne Encephalitis

May 7, 2026 updated by: Daša Stupica, University Medical Centre Ljubljana

Treatment With Dexamethasone in Patients With Tick-borne Encephalitis: Randomized Clinical Trial

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of dexamethasone in patients with tick-borne encephalitis.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

200

Phase

  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Slovenia
      • Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1000
        • Recruiting
        • University Medical Centre Ljubljana
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • age 18 years or older and
  • clinical signs and symptoms of meningoencephalitis or meningomyelitis and
  • cerebrospinal pleocytosis and
  • serological confirfmation of tick-borne encephalitis virus infection

Exclusion Criteria:

  • pregnancy or
  • severe neurological impairment befor tick-borne encephalitis or
  • systemic corticosteroid treatment in the past 30 days or
  • allergy to corticosteroids or
  • immunosuppresive condition or therapy such as HIV with CD4 < 200/ml, organ or bone marrow transplant, receiving chemotherapy, radiotherapy or any other immunosuppresive therapy, primary immunodeficiency, hematological maliganncy or
  • ventricular shunt or
  • endoscopically documented peptic gastric ulcer in the past six months or gastrointestinal bleeding with hemoglobin drop ≥ 20 units or
  • uncontrolled diabetes with hyperglicemia or
  • antiviral therapy with rilpivirin

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Placebo
Drug: Saline (0.9% NaCl)
20 ml saline
Active Comparator: Dexamethasone
Drug: Dexametasone
dexamethasone 4 mg tid

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Modified Rankin Scale for Neurologic Disability
Time Frame: 6 month follow-up visit
Proportion of patients with score 2 or higher on Modified Rankin Scale for Neurologic Disability, avilable at: https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/1890/modified-rankin-scale-neurologic-disability
6 month follow-up visit

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Incomplete outcome
Time Frame: at the 2, 6, and 12 month follow-up visits
Proportion of patients with objective sequelae and subjective symptoms post tick-borne encephalitis as detected by performing clinical examination (objective sequelae) and taking patient history (subjective symptoms)
at the 2, 6, and 12 month follow-up visits

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University Medical Centre Ljubljana

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 3, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 30, 2030

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 30, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 26, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 7, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

May 13, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 13, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 7, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • TBE-Dexa

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The anonymous data generated or analysed during the trial will be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

As expected from September 30 2028

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

The anonymous data generated or analysed during the trial will be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request after the study results are published.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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