A study by the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) Research Group published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on September 3 finds that children who received 400 μg of inhaled budesonide daily for 4-6 years had a mean adult height 1.2 cm less than children who received placebo. The researchers obtained height measurements from 943 participants out of 1041 in the original CAMP study.
The hypotheses of the study was that the heights of children treated with budesonide would catch up to their peers treated with placebo once the budesonide was stopped. Instead, the height deficits persisted even though the rate of growth returned to normal several years after cessation of the drug.
The authors note in their discussion that, “Although the systemic effects of inhaled glucocorticoids are dose-dependent, they are also dependent on the therapeutic index of the specific inhaled glucocorticoid and the delivery device used.” As a result, they conclude, “it seems prudent to select inhaled glucocorticoids and devices with higher therapeutic indexes and to use them in the lowest effective doses in children with persistent asthma.”
Read the NEJM abstract.
