Background Daily inhaled corticosteroids are widely recommended for mild persistent asthma. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of the intermittent use of beclomethasone as an alternative treatment for mild persistent asthma. Methods In this 16-week trial, children aged 6-18 years were evaluated. Subjects in the continuous treatment arm of the study received 500 μg/day of beclomethasone, ...

Little is known about delivery of aerosolised steroids to neonatal patients undergoing assisted positive pressure ventilation and after extubation. A rabbit model has been established to investigate factors influencing drug delivery. Beclomethasone dipropionate, in a metered dose inhaler, was radiolabelied with technetium 99m. The mass median aerodynamic diameter of the aerosol was 3-3 (2.0) pm...

It has not been possible so far to produce a systemic corticosteroid with anti-inflammatory effect on local tissues and without glucocorticoid action. However, esterification of the potent antiinflammatory steroid betamethasone with valeric acid in the 17 carbon position produced betamethasone-17-valerate (Betnovate*), a steroid with marked topical anti-inflammatory activity. Beclomethasone dip...

Eosinophils play an important role in the pathogenesis of asthma. Several pro-inflammatory responses of eosinophils are primed in vivo in this disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether regular antiasthma treatment could modulate priming-sensitive cytotoxic mechanisms of human eosinophils. In a randomized, two-centre, double-blind parallel group study, the effect of 8 week...

BACKGROUND Topical glucocorticoids are the medical treatment of choice in a majority of patients suffering from nasal polyposis. Fluticasone propionate is a fluorinated steroid reported to be highly effective when used topically in the nose for seasonal and perennial allergic and nonallergic rhinitis. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of intranasal fluticasone propionate in...

Topical anti-inflammatory drugs decrease eosinophil infiltration. This action may be due to an effect on the release of epithelial cell products responsible for promoting eosinophil survival. We investigated the effect of fluticasone propionate, budesonide, beclomethasone dipropionate and nedocromil sodium on the release of granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and on eosino...

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of nebulized beclomethasone in preventing the recurrence of viral wheezing. METHODS The study was designed as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Outpatient children aged 1 to 5 years with at least 1 episode of viral wheezing in the last 12 months, presenting to any of 40 Italian pediatricians for an upper re...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether inhaled steroid therapy causes delayed linear growth in children with asthma. DATA SOURCES Medline (1966-1998), Embase (1980-1998), and Cinahl (1982-1998) databases and bibliographies of included studies were searched for randomized, controlled trials of inhaled steroid therapy in children with asthma that evaluated linear growth. STUDY SELECTION Studies were ...

BACKGROUND Glucocorticoids have been proven to be effective in the therapy of recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) in horses via systemic as well as local (inhalative) administration. Elective analysis of the effects of this drug on bronchoconstriction in viable lung tissue offers an insight into the mechanism of action of the inflammatory cascade occurring during RAO which is still unclear. The ...