BACKGROUND Severe alopecia areata (AA) is resistant to conventional treatment. Although systemic oral corticosteroids are an effective treatment for patients with severe AA, those drugs have many adverse effects. Corticosteroid pulse therapy has been introduced to increase therapeutic effects and reduce adverse effects. However, the treatment modality in severe AA is still controversial. OBJE...

Corticosteroid insensitivity (CI) is a major barrier to treating severe asthma. Despite intensive research, the molecular mechanism of CI remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to determine abnormality in corticosteroid action in severe asthma and to identify the molecular mechanism of the long-acting β(2)-adrenergic agonists (LABAs) formoterol and salmeterol on restoration of corticoster...

BACKGROUND High-dose (pulse) corticosteroid therapy has been associated with the development of atrial fibrillation. This association, however, is mainly based on case reports. METHODS To test the hypothesis that high-dose corticosteroid exposure increases the risk of new-onset atrial fibrillation, we performed a nested case-control study within the Rotterdam Study, a population-based cohort ...

PURPOSE To study the effectiveness of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) as first-line therapy combined with systemic corticosteroids in acute uveitis associated with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) disease. The outcomes in this group were compared with those of another group of patients with VKH disease who were treated with corticosteroid monotherapy or with delayed addition of immunomodulatory therapy. ...

CONTEXT Corticosteroid is a well-established cause of drug-induced pancreatitis. However, acute pancreatitis from intra-articular injection of corticosteroid has never been described. CASE REPORT A 69-year-old male presented with acute abdominal pain and was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. The patient had one episode of acute pancreatitis two year earlier. Both episodes occurred after intr...

AIM To describe the authors' experience and that in the published literature regarding the use of corticosteroid sparing systemic immunosuppression for patients with corticosteroid dependent optic neuritis not associated with demyelinating disease. METHODS The records of 10 patients from the authors' clinical database, and 38 patients from the published literature with corticosteroid dependen...

A number of studies have demonstrated seasonal regulation of the adrenocortical response to stress, or of corticosteroid binding globulins, but very few studies have examined seasonal regulation of corticosteroid receptor levels. As a result, there have been few attempts to produce an integrated picture of seasonal plasticity of the stress response. We measured baseline and stress-induced corti...