Effect of a short course of prednisone in the prevention of early relapse after the emergency room treatment of acute asthma

Article Abstract:

Visits to the hospital emergency room are not rare among patients with asthma, and from 25 to 30 percent of all patients visiting an emergency room for treatment of an acute exacerbation of asthma will have a relapse following treatment. Some clinicians have recommended that a short course of oral corticosteroids be given after emergency treatment, but until now the value of this practice had not been objectively established. Ninety-three emergency room patients were recruited into a controlled study of oral steroids; 48 patients took prednisone for eight days after their emergency room visit, and 45 took a placebo which was indistinguishable in appearance and taste from the real drug. The patients took eight 5 milligram tablets of prednisone or eight tablets of placebo the first day, and each day the dose was tapered by a single tablet. Follow-up revealed that only 3 of the patients taking prednisone relapsed within the first 10 days, in contrast with 11 of the patients taking placebo. From days 11 through 21, 5 patients in the treatment group and 6 in the placebo group suffered relapses, indicating that the beneficial effect seen in the treatment group was limited to the interval during which prednisone was taken daily. In addition to freedom from relapses requiring medical attention, the group treated with prednisone experienced significantly fewer episodes of shortness of breath and used inhaled bronchodilators significantly less often. The results demonstrate that a short course of oral steroid treatment after an emergency room visit for acute asthma does indeed reduce the risk of relapse. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Asthma

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Randomized, double-blind six-month trial of prednisone in Duchenne's muscular dystrophy

Article Abstract:

A drug called prednisone improves the strength and ability to move about in patients with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. The patients tested were all young boys, aged five to 15 years. Improvement began after as little as a month and peaked at three months. They became almost twice as fast at rising from a lying position to a standing position. They could walk short distances about a third again as fast as before. The could climb four stair steps nearly twice as fast and could breathe more deeply. Some boys received a higher dose of the drug and some a lower dose, but the size of the dose did not affect their rate of improvement. However, patients who needed braces or wheelchairs before treatment still needed them following administration of the drug. More of a substance called creatine, produced when muscles grow, was detected in their urine, suggesting that the drug helped their muscles to grow. Adverse side effects include weight gain, excessive hair growth, and an accumulation of fat on the face, neck and trunk.

Measurement, Muscle strength, Duchenne muscular dystrophy

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Successful treatment of a patient with a thymoma and pure red-cell aplasia with octreotide and prednisone

Article Abstract:

Inoperable tumors of the thymus gland with defective red blood cell production may be successfully treated with a combination of octreotide and prednisone. A 56-year-old woman with a cough and difficulty breathing was found to have a large thymoma, or tumor arising from the thymus gland, in the upper chest. Doctors decided that the tumor was inoperable because of its location and size, and decided to treat it with the drugs octreotide and prednisone. The defective red blood cell production improved after one month of treatment, and the thymoma had shrunk substantially within three months.

Chemotherapy, Thymoma, Octreotide acetate

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