Antiinflammatory therapies, such as inhaled corticosteroids or nedocromil, are recommended for children with asthma, although there is limited information on their long-term use. This study randomly assigned 1041 children with asthma to four to six years of treatment with inhaled budesonide, inhaled nedocromil, or placebo. Although neither budesonide nor nedocromil was better than placebo in terms of lung function, budesonide improved airway responsiveness and provided better control of asthma than either placebo or nedocromil.

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. This study of 142 children with asthma who had received between 3 and 13 years of budesonide treatment found that they attained normal adult height.

Many totally blind people have "free-running" circadian rhythms that are longer than 24 hours because of the lack of light­dark cues that synchronize the endogenous pacemaker to the 24-hour day; they therefore have periodic insomnia and daytime sleepiness. Of seven blind persons whose circadian period averaged 24.5 hours, six had a response to melatonin given before the preferred bedtime for three to nine weeks. Melatonin treatment restored a 24-hour rhythm, as indicated by the timing of the daily increase in the plasma melatonin concentration and improvements in sleep patterns.

To assess the efficacy of renal transplantation in patients with end-stage renal disease who received cadaveric kidneys from HLA-matched and HLA-mismatched donors in the national kidney-sharing program, this study examined rates of graft survival and graft function in 7614 patients who received kidneys from HLA-matched donors and 81,364 patients who received kidneys from HLA-mismatched donors. The estimated 10-year rates of overall graft survival and of functional-graft survival were 10 percent and 11 percent higher, respectively, in the patients who received a kidney from an HLA-matched donor. Given these results, the authors conclude that nationwide sharing of kidneys to achieve HLA matching is justified.