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Previous Volume 343:1064-1069 October 12, 2000 Number 15 Next

	Full Text PDF Editorial by Wohl, M. E. B. Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

ABSTRACT

Background Short-term studies have shown that inhaled corticosteroids may reduce the growth of children with asthma. However, the effect of long-term treatment on adult height is uncertain.

Methods We conducted a prospective study in children with asthma to examine the effect of long-term treatment with inhaled budesonide on adult height. We report on 211 children who have attained adult height: 142 budesonide-treated children with asthma, 18 control patients with asthma who have never received inhaled corticosteroids, and 51 healthy siblings of patients in the budesonide group, who also served as controls.

Results The children in the budesonide group attained adult height after a mean of 9.2 years of budesonide treatment (range, 3 to 13) at a mean daily dose of 412 µg (range, 110 to 877). The mean cumulative dose of budesonide was 1.35 g (range, 0.41 to 3.99). The mean differences between the measured and target adult heights were +0.3 cm (95 percent confidence interval, –0.6 to +1.2) for the budesonide-treated children, –0.2 cm (95 percent confidence interval, –2.4 to +2.1) for the control children with asthma, and +0.9 cm (95 percent confidence interval, –0.4 to +2.2) for the healthy siblings. The adult height depended significantly (P<0.001) on the child's height before budesonide treatment. Although growth rates were significantly reduced during the first years of budesonide treatment, these changes in growth rate were not significantly associated with adult height.

Conclusions Children with asthma who have received long-term treatment with budesonide attain normal adult height.

Source Information

From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern Denmark and Kolding Hospital, Kolding, Denmark.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Agertoft at the Department of Pediatrics, Kolding Hospital, DK-6000 Kolding, Denmark, or at lone_agertoft{at}dadlnet.dk.

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