Abstract
The airway inflammation is believed to play an important role in bronchial asthma and beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) inhalation therapy has been introduced and proved to be effective for treatment of asthmatic children. Although BDP inhalation is generally considered to have less adverse effects than oral corticosteroids, we should watch the adrenal effects of corticosteroids for children carefully. We estimated the adrenal functions of 16 children (11 boys and 5 girls, age: 12.7±2.8 [mean±SD] years old, inhalation period: 648.1±206.0 days, dose: 12.1±5.4μg/kg/day) by serum cortisol levels, urine 17-OHCS levels and rapid-ACTH challenge test before and after BDP inhalation therapy. The results suggest the possibility of adrenal functions suppression after BDP inhalation. We must admit that the safety of BDP inhalation for asthmatic children still remain unestablished. We propose that we should be very cautious when we start BDP inhalation therapy for children and estimate their adrenal functions regularly and continuously.
