Adverse effects of inhaled corticosteroids in funded and nonfunded studies. Randomised controlled trial of inhaled corticosteroids in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Long term effects of inhaled corticosteroids in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a meta-analysis. Efficacy of corticosteroids in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia requiring hospitalization. Effects of long-term treatment with corticosteroids in COPD. Steroid-sparing properties of sargramostim in patients with corticosteroid-dependent Crohn's disease: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study. Corticosteroids in COPD. A clinical trial and reassessment of the literature. Do inhaled corticosteroids impair long-term growth in prepubertal cystic fibrosis patients? Topical corticosteroids in chronic rhinosinusitis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial using fluticasone propionate aqueous nasal spray.
Evidence regarding the safety profile of drugs may vary depending on study sponsorship. We aimed to evaluate differences between studies funded by the pharmaceutical manufacturer of the drug (PF) and those with no pharmaceutical funding (NoPF) regarding the finding and interpretation of adverse effects of inhaled corticosteroids.
                We assessed the safety reporting of inhaled corticosteroids in 275 PF and 229 NoPF studies identified by a MEDLINE search using prespecified criteria.
                Overall, the finding of statistically significant differences for adverse effects was significantly less frequent in PF (34.5%) than in NoPF (65.1%) studies (prevalence ratio, 0.53; 95% confidence interval, 0.44-0.64). This association became nonsignificant (prevalence ratio, 0.94; 95% confidence interval, 0.77-1.15) after controlling for design features (such as dose or use of parallel groups) that tended to be associated with less frequent finding of adverse effects and were more common in PF studies. Among studies finding a statistically significant increase in adverse effects associated with the study drug, the authors of PF articles concluded that the drug was "safe" more frequently than the authors of NoPF studies (prevalence ratio, 3.68; 95% confidence interval, 2.14-6.33).
                The type of funding may have determinant effects on the design of studies and on the interpretation of findings: funding by the industry is associated with design features less likely to lead to finding statistically significant adverse effects and with a more favorable clinical interpretation of such findings. Disclosure of conflicts of interest should be strengthened for a more balanced opinion on the safety of drugs. Inhaled corticosteroids are known to be beneficial for patients with asthma, but their role in treating patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains controversial. A study was undertaken to determine whether inhaled corticosteroids are of functional benefit in patients who did not show improvement with a trial of oral corticosteroids.
                In phase I patients with stable COPD were given a two week course of oral placebo followed by two weeks of prednisone 40 mg per day in a single blind manner to distinguish between responders and non-responders to oral corticosteroids. In phase II a double blind, randomised, parallel group trial of inhaled budesonide 1600 micrograms per day versus placebo was carried out in 79 nonresponders to oral corticosteroids. The primary outcome measure was forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), and secondary outcome measures were exercise capacity, dyspnoea with exertion, quality of life, peak expiration flow rate, and respiratory symptoms.
                Randomisation allocated 39 subjects to inhaled corticosteroids and 40 to placebo. There was no difference in the change in FEV1 from baseline between the treatment and placebo groups; mean difference -12 ml (95% CI -88 to 63) at three months and -4 ml (95% CI -95 to 87) at six months. The proportion of patients with a 15% or greater improvement was no higher among those receiving inhaled corticosteroids than in the placebo group at any of the follow up visits. Changes in secondary outcomes were also no different.
                Inhaled corticosteroids, even at high doses, were of no physiological or functional benefit in these patients with advanced COPD. The role of inhaled corticosteroids in the long term management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is still unclear. A meta-analysis of the original data sets of the randomised controlled trials published thus far was therefore performed. The main question was: "Are inhaled corticosteroids able to slow down the decline in lung function (FEV1) in COPD?"
                A Medline search of papers published between 1983 and 1996 was performed and three studies were selected, two of which were published in full and one in abstract form. Patients with "asthmatic features" were excluded from the original data. Ninety five of the original 140 patients treated with inhaled corticosteroids (81 with 1500 micrograms beclomethasone daily, six with 1600 micrograms budesonide daily, and eight with 800 micrograms beclomethasone daily) and 88 patients treated with placebo (of the initial 144 patients) were included in the analysis. The effect on FEV1 was assessed by a multiple repeated measurement technique in which points of time in the study and treatment effects (inhaled corticosteroids compared with placebo) were investigated.
                No baseline differences were observed (mean age 61 years, mean FEV1 45% predicted). The estimated two year difference in prebronchodilator FEV1 was +0.034 l/year (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.005 to 0.063) in the inhaled corticosteroid group compared with placebo. The postbronchodilator FEV1 showed a difference of +0.039 l/year (95% CI -0.006 to 0.084). No beneficial effect was observed on the exacerbation rate. Worsening of the disease was the reason for drop out in four patients in the treatment group compared with nine in the placebo group. In the treatment group six of the 95 subjects dropped out because of an adverse effect which may have been related to the treatment compared with two of the 88 patients in the placebo group.
                This meta-analysis in patients with clearly defined moderately severe COPD showed a beneficial course of FEV1 during two years of treatment with relatively high daily dosages of inhaled corticosteroids. Recent studies suggested that administration of corticosteroids may improve clinical outcomes in patients with severe pneumonia.
                The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of corticosteroids as an adjunctive therapy in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) requiring hospitalization.
                An open label, prospective, randomized control study was conducted from September 2003 to February 2004 in a community general hospital in Japan.
                Thirty-one adult CAP patients who required hospitalization were enrolled.
                Fifteen patients received 40 mg of prednisolone intravenously for 3 days (steroid group). Sixteen patients did not receive prednisolone (control group). Both groups were also evaluated for their adrenal function. The primary endpoint was length of hospital stay. Secondary endpoints were duration of intravenous (IV) antibiotics and time required to stabilize vital signs. Both groups demonstrated similar baseline characteristics and length of hospital stay, and yet a shorter duration of IV antibiotics was observed in the steroid group (p < 0.05). In addition, vital signs were stabilized earlier in the steroid group (p < 0.05). These differences were more prominent in the moderate-severe subgroup but not as significant in the mild-moderate subgroup. The prevalence of relative adrenal insufficiency (RAI) in both groups was high (43%), yet there was no difference in baseline characteristics between patients, with or without RAI. In multiple regression models, RAI seemed to have no influence on clinical courses.
                In moderate-severe CAP, administration of corticosteroids promotes resolution of clinical symptoms and reduces the duration of intravenous antibiotic therapy. To determine the effectiveness of treatment with corticosteroids in patients with COPD.
                In this study, we investigated the effect of a 2-year treatment with corticosteroids on clinical symptoms and the decline of lung function in 58 nonallergic patients with COPD. Subjects were treated in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel way with inhaled budesonide (bud), 1,600 micrograms/d; inhaled budesonide, 1,600 micrograms/d, plus oral prednisolone, 5 micrograms/d (bud + pred); or placebo (plac). Clinical assessment (history, physical examination, and spirometry) was carried out every 2 months. The rate of decline in FEV1 was assessed by calculating individual regression co-efficients from linear regression of FEV1 on time for each subject.
                Eleven patients dropped out. The number of withdrawals due to pulmonary problems was significantly higher in the plac group (n = 5 out of 18) than in the actively treated groups (n = 2 out of 40). Treatment with corticosteroids significantly reduced pulmonary symptoms. Median decline of FEV1 was 60 mL/yr in the plac group, 40 mL/yr in the bud + pred group, and 30 mL/yr in the bud group. Variation was large and differences were not statistically significant. No treatment effect was found on frequency or duration of exacerbations, possibly because of the high number of withdrawals due to pulmonary deterioration in the plac group. Treatment with a combination of inhaled plus oral corticosteroids was not more effective than inhaled corticosteroids alone. Morning plasma cortisol levels remained within the normal range in all three groups.
                Our study shows beneficial effects of long-term daily treatment with inhaled corticosteroids in patients with COPD with regard to symptoms and drop out due to pulmonary problems. Lung function decline tends to decrease during treatment with inhaled corticosteroids. The observed effects are limited but warrant further studies on the effectiveness of corticosteroids in larger numbers of patients with COPD. Although treatment with corticosteroids induces remission in Crohn's disease, prolonged exposure to corticosteroids is undesirable. This randomised clinical trial evaluated the efficacy of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (sargramostim), an activator of innate immunity, in corticosteroid-dependent patients with Crohn's disease.
                Patients were randomised in a 2:1 ratio, to sargramostim 6 microg/kg subcutaneously once daily or placebo for up to 22 weeks. The study consisted of (1) an adjunctive phase (weeks 1-4) in which patients received study drug plus corticosteroid therapy; (2) a forced corticosteroid tapering phase (weeks 4-14); and (3) an observation phase (4 weeks) in which patients received study drug plus prednisone < or =7.5 mg. The primary endpoint was corticosteroid-free remission (Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI) < or =150) 4 weeks after corticosteroid elimination. Secondary endpoints were corticosteroid-free response (CDAI decreased by > or =100) and induction of remission in patients who reduced the dose of corticosteroid to 2.5-7.5 mg.
                Eighty-seven patients were randomised to sargramostim and 42 to placebo. Significantly more sargramostim-treated patients than placebo patients achieved corticosteroid-free remission (18.6% vs 4.9%; p = 0.03). Similar differences were seen for corticosteroid-free response and in patients who tapered corticosteroids to 2.5-7.5 mg/day. Sargramostim treatment was also associated with significant improvements in health-related quality of life. Patients who received sargramostim were more likely to experience musculoskeletal pain, injection site reactions and dyspnoea.
                Sargramostim was more effective than placebo for inducing corticosteroid-free remission in patients with Crohn's disease with corticosteroid dependence. Sargramostim may provide significant benefit in this population if these findings are confirmed. A placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over trial was conducted to assess whether 16 men with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) would benefit from orally taken corticosteroids. Two weeks of treatment with 40 mg of prednisone daily did not result in improvement of pulmonary symptoms or function in the group as a whole, although one patient had small improvement in airflow. The baseline spirometric data and beta-agonist responsiveness of the patients in the study were then compared to a reference population consisting of 264 men who fulfilled a criteria for chronic obstruction out of 730 men who comprised a systematic sample drawn from all patients referred for spirometry at three hospitals. Our study subjects and those of five similar trials of corticosteroids in COPD had more severe obstruction than this reference group. Furthermore, the proportion of steroid responders found in each study was inversely related to the baseline FEV1 of the patients examined. It appears that previous studies of corticosteroids in COPD may have overestimated the number of COPD patients who might benefit from corticosteroids, due to a bias resulting from the selection of severely obstructed subjects. Despite absence of clear proof of efficacy, the use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is widespread in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Therefore, the effect of ICS on lung function and other clinical variables was studied in 27 prepubertal CF children with mild to moderate lung disease. In a prospective double-blind case-controlled study, fluticasone propionate 500 microg or placebo were administered twice daily during 12 months. The mean (standard error of the mean, SEM) patient age was 8.2 (0.6) years in the placebo group and 9.0 (0.5) years in the fluticasone group. The mean (SEM) forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) was 91% (4%) in the placebo group and 86% (4%) in the fluticasone group. There was no statistically significant difference in the evolution of lung function and the number of respiratory exacerbations between groups. However, longitudinal growth in fluticasone patients was significantly slower than in placebo patients: 3.96 (0.29) cm versus 5.49 (0.38) cm [p<0.005, analysis of variance (ANOVA)] over the 12-month study duration. This resulted in a significant change in height standard deviation score (SDS) of -0.38 (0.09) in the fluticasone group versus -0.01 (0.07) in the placebo group (p<0.003, ANOVA). No catch-up growth was noted 1-2 years after discontinuation of inhaled steroids. The use of high-dose ICS in CF patients with mild lung disease may lead to persistent growth impairment. Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a recalcitrant inflammatory process which has a marked detrimental impact on quality of life. At the present there is no cure for this condition, measures are taken to stop progression, and provide symptomatic relief. Topical corticosteroids are commonly prescribed in the management of CRS, but few trials show effectiveness in clinical settings. We set up a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to study the effectiveness of a topical corticosteroid agent--fluticasone propionate aqueous nasal spray (FPANS) in patients with CRS. We measured symptoms, diary card, and rigid endoscopy scores, acoustic rhinometry, middle meatal swabs, blood tests--CRP, ESR, WBC, and eosinophil count. Measurements were done at the start of the trial, at 8 weeks, and 16 weeks where possible. Twenty-two patients completed the trial, 9 received FPANS, and 13 had placebo. There was no difference between the 2 groups on all counts. When patients were considered as one group, there was an improvement in the diary card scores (p = 0.054), comparing baseline to 8 or 16 weeks. There was no evidence that the regular use of topical corticosteroid increased the risk of developing an infection. An important observation was that the topical corticosteroid did not precipitate acute sinusitis. There is compelling evidence that topical corticosteroids down-regulate cytokine expression, and it is likely that a larger, and longer multi-centre trial may prove their efficacy in CRS.
Overall, there is no evidence of a beneficial or adverse effect of corticosteroids in patients with either SAH or PICH. Confidence intervals are wide and include clinically significant effects in both directions.