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Beclomethasone failed to improve long-term respiratory outcomes in RSV
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Infants hospitalized for respiratory syncytial virus who were given early-initiated prolonged treatment with high-dose inhaled beclomethasone did not have improved long-term respiratory outcomes, but the treatment was safe, according to recent study findings published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
Louis J. Bont, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands, and colleagues examined 185 infants who were hospitalized between 2004 and 2006 for RSV bronchiolitis treated with early-initiated high-dose beclomethasone (n=86) or placebo (n=99). Follow-up was conducted at age 6 years between April 2010 and November 2011.
At follow-up, researchers did not find any differences in lung function, resistance or fractional exhaled nitric oxide between the two groups. Twenty-five percent of the beclomethasone group and 34.7% of the placebo group had bronchial hyperresponsiveness (risk difference, –9.7%; 95% CI, –27.4 to 8.1). Bronchial hyperresponsiveness plus current wheezing was found in 3.8% of the beclomethasone group compared with 6.1% of the placebo group (risk difference, –2.3%; 95% CI, –10.8 to 6.2).
“Early initiated high-dose extra fine [hydrofluoroalkane] beclomethasone administered to infants (<13 months) for 3 months after RSV related lower respiratory tract infection did not improve lung function at the age of 6 years,” the researchers wrote. “It did also not affect the development of [bronchial hyperresponsiveness], physician diagnosed asthma or other atopic diseases. No adverse effect on linear growth at the age of 6 years was found.”
Louis J. Bont, MD, PhD, can be reached at l.bont@umcutretcht.nl.
Disclosure: One researcher reports financial ties with the Dutch Asthma Foundation and Teva Pharma Nederland.
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