The benefits and risks of steroids for the treatment of IgA nephropathy remain uncertain. We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library for randomized, controlled trials of corticosteroid therapy for IgA nephropathy published between 1966 and March 2011. We identified nine relevant trials that included 536 patients who had urinary protein excretion >1 g/d and normal renal...

A frozen shoulder is a common cause of a painful and stiff shoulder. A web-based survey was conducted to obtain insight in the current preferences about the diagnosis and treatment of a frozen shoulder. A response rate of 54% was reached among shoulder specialized orthopaedic surgeons from the Netherlands and Belgium. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and intra-articular corticosteroid inje...

We report a case of Riedel's thyroiditis presenting with a systemic illness, life-threatening stridor and a stony hard goitre. Diagnosis was confirmed by open thyroid biopsy. Treatment with corticosteroid resulted in a dramatic improvement. A possible autoimmune mechanism in the pathogenesis of Riedel's thyroiditis is discussed.

conclusions corticosteroid pulse therapy in spms was effective in inflammatory process, but could not postpone or decline the neurodegenerative process and besides the imposing side effects could not result in significant improvement in edss and mri plaques number in long term. patients and methods a double blind randomized controlled clinical trial was performed on 71 patients with spms referr...

Because of their anti-inflammatory activity, corticosteroids generally mask the clinical signs of a contact dermatitis to a corticosteroid preparation. The lesions usually present as chronic dermatitis, and the patients mostly report not exacerbations but failures to respond to corticosteroid therapy. Moreover, masking also occurs with patch-test reactions obtained with corticosteroid preparati...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the responses of serum osteocalcin (OC), undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) and N-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (NTx) to corticosteroids, and to examine the effects of risedronate therapy with or without vitamin K(2) supplementation on bone metabolic markers in corticosteroid-treated patients. METHODS Sixteen patients on corticost...

BACKGROUND High-dose (pulse) corticosteroid therapy has been associated with the development of atrial fibrillation. This association, however, is mainly based on case reports. METHODS To test the hypothesis that high-dose corticosteroid exposure increases the risk of new-onset atrial fibrillation, we performed a nested case-control study within the Rotterdam Study, a population-based cohort ...

BACKGROUND The role of adjunct systemic corticosteroid therapy in children with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is not known. The objective was to determine the association between adjunct systemic corticosteroid therapy and treatment failure in children who received antibiotics for treatment of CAP in the outpatient setting. METHODS The study included a retrospective cohort study of child...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate macrolides as an adjunct to an asthma controller regimen in children with asthma. METHODS Prospective clinical trials of macrolide therapy in children with asthma using outcome measures of change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)) and/or oral corticosteroid requirement were searched for in PubMed up to December 2009. The ...

PURPOSE To study the effectiveness of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) as first-line therapy combined with systemic corticosteroids in acute uveitis associated with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease. The outcomes in this group were compared with those of another group of patients with VKH disease who were treated with corticosteroid monotherapy or with delayed addition of immunomodulatory therapy. ...