Monday 15, Jun 2009
Length of Walking Ability gets improved with Steroids in Patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
In a study that was supported by the General Clinical Research Center at the Ohio State University and the National Center of Research Resources of NIH, it was revealed that boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (MD) are able to walk more than 3 years longer when they take corticosteroids on a daily basis.
Wendy King, a physical therapist in the neurology department at Ohio State University, remarked that the risk of scoliosis along with the degree of curvature gets sharply reduced with daily doses of corticosteroids.
King remarked that this study is the first to look at the long-term impact of the drugs against previous studies that merely showed that corticosteroids can improve strength and function in boys with X-linked recessive ailment.
From Medpagetoday.com:
The reason for non-treatment with steroids was invariably parent refusal because of fear of side effects, the researchers said. The average duration of steroid use was 8.04 years.
The study found:
Boys on steroids were able to walk independently, on average, 3.3 years longer than those who weren’t treated. The difference — from 9.21 years to 12.52 years — was significant at P<0.0001.
The prevalence of scoliosis in the treated boys was 31%, compared with 91% among those not getting steroids, a difference that was significant at P<0.0001.
The average scoliotic curve was 11.6 degrees in the treated boys, compared with 33.2 degrees in the untreated boys, which was also significant at P<0.0001.
On the other hand, 32% of the treated boys had vertebral compression fractures versus none in those not getting steroids, which was significant at P<0.0012.
The yearly long-bone fracture rate was 0.088 among the treated boys, but only 0.033 in the untreated group, difference by a factor of 2.6, which was significant at P<0.0032.
Several factors probably play a role in the increased rate of long-bone fractures, the researchers said, including prolonged independent walking and increased body weight because of the steroids.
The study also suggested that patients with Duchenne MD must be prescribed calcium supplements and provided with regular bone density examinations at intervals of six months to twenty four months because of the orthopedic implications of usage of steroids.
Tags: calcium supplements, corticosteroids, duchenne muscular dystrophy, steroids
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Duchenne muscular dystrophy
A new study has revealed that boys affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy can be treated with a daily