Effects on Bone Metabolism of Asthma Treatment with Beclomethasone Dipropionate (BDP) Inhalation and Short Term Burst of Oral Steroids

: Inhaled steroids are currently the first-line treatment of chronic asthma. Because each metered dose of beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) is small (50 micrograms), short term burst or continuous use of oral steroids are combined in moderately to severely asthmatic patients. The effect of these treatments on bone metabolism remains unclear. Bone mineral density (BMD), osteoclacin (OC), PTH, Ca, and ALP were assessed in 130 asthmatic patients. There were 3 groups: the first group [B+R] consisted of 17 patients taking BDP (1190 +/- 536 micrograms/day) and also taking oral steroids (8.0 +/- 3.8 mg/day, 8.11 +/- 5.52 years), the second group [B+S] had 35 patients taking BDP (885 +/- 320 +/- g/day) and short-term bursts of oral steroids (PSL 20-40 mg/day, 3-7 days/course, 7.51 +/- 4.54 courses/year) and the third group [B alone] consisted of patients who were taking BDP (480 +/- 260 micrograms/day) alone. BMD was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). In the [B+R], [B+S], and [B alone] groups, the BMD of vertebra (L1-4) was 0.75, 0.86, and 0.90 g/cm2, respectively. The percentages of predicted values based on age and sex were 92.0, 102.7, and 106.9% respectively. BMD and percent decrease were significantly lower in the [B+R] group than in the [B+S] or [B alone] group. It is likely that this phenomenon is caused by long-term use of oral steroids rather than by BDP inhalation but there is no significant difference between the [B+S] and the [B alone] groups. Daily BDP dose did not correlate with BMD by multiple regression analysis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)