Posts Tagged ‘oral steroids’

Half of patients treated with omalizumab were able to stop taking potentially harmful steroids and most needed them less often, according to experts.

Asthma UK urged health chiefs to consider offering the jabs to more people.

From Mirror.co.uk:

Spokeswoman Emily Humphreys said: “This medicine can be life-changing. It can help people reduce their dose of oral steroids, which we know have substantial side effects.”

Just 1,000 of the UK’s 250,000 severe asthma sufferers are thought to receive the £12,000-a-year fortnightly injections, which go under the trade name Xolair.

Dr Rob Niven, of the University Hospital of South Manchester, added: “People with severe asthma live in fear of the next potentially fatal attack. Any research that supports an option that reduces the additional side effect burden of steroids is encouraging.”

A review of 55 patients who were treated with colchicine for chronic urticaria has suggested that patients afflicted with chronic urticaria who responded to colchicine used significantly fewer steroids after starting colchicine than before starting it.

Data from a review of adults who received colchicine for CIU from 2003 to 2008 has suggested that Colchicine is an effective steroid-sparing agent that can be used to treat refractory chronic idiopathic urticaria.

From Internalmedicinenews.com:

To assess the agent’s effectiveness in this setting, the investigators reviewed charts from 55 patients with CIU who were treated with colchicine for at least 7 days, focusing on the type of urticaria, type of response, and use of oral steroids before and after colchicine treatment.

Overall, 24 patients responded to colchicine, 2 partially responded, and 29 did not respond (44%, 4%, and 53%, respectively). The average number of steroid courses in the responders dropped significantly between the 6 months prior to and the 6 months after colchicine use (2.44 vs. 0.33). Information on the average number of steroid courses was available only for the responders. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

Response was defined as subjective improvement and a decrease in the oral steroid dosage of at least 50% within 3 months of beginning colchicine. A partial response was defined as a subjective improvement with no decrease in oral steroids by 50% within 3 months of beginning colchicine.

Dr. Mary S. Georgy of Northwestern University, Chicago, and her associates, said Colchicine has been shown to reduce mast cell degranulation, suppress leukotriene generation, and reduce leukocyte adhesiveness and migration.

In the world of oral steroids, Methyltestosterone is one name that is admired by one and all. Considered to be one of the oldest of all oral steroids, popularity of Methyltestosterone has not diminished ever since it first appeared on the world stage. Let us read about this drug to develop a clear understanding.

Methyltestosterone is a synthetic derivative of testosterone, the male sex hormone. The chemical name of Methyltestosterone is 17ß-hydroxy-17a-methylandrost-4-en-3-one and its molecular weight is 302.451 g/mol at the base.

The drug is admired by sportsmen, especially professional bodybuilders and athletes, as it increases the level of aggression to considerable extent that is often the deciding factor in competitive events. Some Methyltestosterone users are of the view that this drug is also useful in improving the level of body strength and muscle mass over a period of time without putting them in contact with any side effects.

In the world of health care, Methyltestosterone is used for treating deficiency of androgen and individuals requiring replacement therapy besides being used to treat patients with breast cancer.

The recommended dose of Methyltestosterone for replacement therapy, breast cancer, and muscle building is 10-50 mg/day, 50-200 mg/day, and 100-300 mg/day, respectively. It is worth noting here that Methyltestosterone is not recommended for individuals having an existing allergy to Methyltestosterone or any of its ingredients; it is also not recommended for pregnant and breastfeeding women. When abused or of a low grade, Methyltestosterone use can lead to side effects such as clitoral enlargement, gynecomastia, virilization, and menstrual irregularities.

When it comes to delivering power-packed performance on a continuing basis, Omnadren is not a new name, read on!

Omnadren, which is also known as Omnadren 250, is an exceptional muscle building product to say the least. Each milliliter of Omnadren 250 includes 60 mg testosterone phenylpropionate, 60 mg testosterone isocaproate, 30 mg testosterone propionate, and 100 mg testosterone caproate.

Chemical Properties

The molecular weight of Omnadren is 288.429 g/mol at the base. It has an approximate active life of 10 days and has the detection time of nearly three months. This exemplary product has an anabolic/androgenic ration of 100:100.

Benefits

Omnadren users can expect faster and better results than users on Sustanon as the longest ester (caproate) in Omnadren acts slightly quicker than the longer ester (decanoate) in Sustanon. This means that testosterone levels can be elevated at a rapid pace with Omnadren. In addition to that, Omnadren is also effective for building solid muscle mass and is therefore an important part of every bulking cycle.

Recommended Dose

The recommended dose of Omnadren 250 for men is 250-1000 mg/week, with or without meals. This drug is not meant for women unless otherwise recommended by a qualified medical practitioner.

Steroid Stacking

Omnadren can be used fast acting oral steroids like Dianabol or Anadrol in the first 4 weeks of a steroid cycle. The duration, at a stretch, should not exceed 12-16 weeks at a time.

Possible Side Effects

When abused or of a low-grade quality, Omnadren 250 can lead to side effects such as acne, oily skin, abnormal body hair growth, increased aggression, and gynecomastia.

According to a new study, the potential risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) related lymphoma is minimized to a considerable extent when oral steroids are used for a period of two or more years.

These advantages can be noticed irrespective of when in the course of the disease the steroids were initially administered but these effects do not happen when steroid use is made for a period less than two years.

From Bio-Medicine.Org:

In individuals treated with steroids for over two years, the risk of rheumatoid arthritis-associated lymphomas was significantly reduced (relative risk 0.4; 0.2-0.7), whilst less than two years of steroids yielded no such reduced risk (relative risk 0.9; 0.5-1.5).

The most pronounced protective steroidal effect was observed in the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma subtype – the type of lymphoma most commonly associated with RA 1,2,3 with an odds ratio of 0.7 (0.4-1.0).

The study involved 378 patients with rheumatoid arthritis-associated lymphoma identified from the Swedish Hospital Register and the Cancer Register compared with 378 individually matched RA controls, i.e. patients with RA but without lymphoma.

Using data on steroid treatment type and duration along with inflammatory load collected from cases and controls, information on lymphoma type (where observed) was also collected. The lymphoma tissues were obtained from the pathology laboratories and were reclassified according to the most recent lymphoma classification, the World Health Organization classification.

It was remarked by study author Dr Eva Baecklund of Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden, that long term steroid treatment is often limited as a result of concerns about various side effects.

A protein acknowledged for stimulating growth of blood vessels was recently found as the reason behind overgrowth of cells in polyps’ development characterizing one of the most severe forms of sinusitis.

This finding was disclosed during a study by researchers from Johns Hopkins that was aimed at offering a new target for development of new therapies to treat disease form, which typically resists all current treatments.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Kim explains that surgery to remove the polyps is one of the most common treatments for this disease. However, nasal and sinus polyps in these patients almost always regrow. “Once the patient has entered the cycle of growing polyps, it’s very hard to get out,” she says. Another common treatment is oral steroids, but these drugs are fraught with many harmful side effects and also only temporarily treat the disease.

She and her Johns Hopkins colleagues have long studied sinusitis, often growing sinus cells isolated from patients in petri dishes. After noticing that cells from patients with polyps typically multiplied faster than cells from normal patients, the researchers speculated that cells from polyp patients might be producing extra amounts of some type of growth factor, a protein that encourages cell growth.

Jean Kim, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology and Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Allergy and Asthma Center at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, was of the view that this type of sinusitis is not subtle in nature.

CH-1504, a potential oral drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), has the potential to encourage women for treating their condition earlier as it is less arduous than presently available treatment options.

It is worth noting here that an early treatment becomes all that necessary as rheumatoid arthritis usually develops between the ages of 35-50 years and is believed to affect women more than men.

The potential therapy was initiated by Dr. M. Gopal Nair, a professor and vice-chairman at the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of South Alabama.

From News-Medical.Net:

Current treatment options for RA include over-the-counter oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other pain relievers; oral steroids; but the gold standard for treatment is still methotrexate, a drug that been used for nearly 30 years. Newly available compounds known as biologic response modifiers, such as etanercept and infliximab are used when the disease progresses (mostly in combination with methotrexate) but have to be injected and are very expensive.

While methotrexate is often effective, long-term chronic doses of the drug can be toxic to the liver, kidneys and other organs. Short-term tolerability issues such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea also often limit its use.

“Given the problems that many patients have tolerating methotrexate along with its long-term safety concerns, a drug candidate that is proven to be as effective or more effective than with fewer side effects would be a major breakthrough in the treatment of RA. This may prompt patients to treat their condition earlier and continue treatment longer,” says Dr. Pedder.

Dr. Simon Pedder, CEO of Chelsea Therapeutics, said that drug candidates like CH-1504 can help women when it comes to complying with early RA treatment along with significantly improving their outlook in context to management of conditions even into their later years.

Vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, a protein important for normal blood vessel growth, is responsible for cell overgrowth in polyps’ development to characterize one of the most severe forms of sinusitis, as per researchers from the Johns Hopkins.

This finding by Johns Hopkins researchers is considered to provide a new target for developing new therapies in relation to treating this disease form, which generally resist all present treatment forms.

From Sciencedaily.com:

Kim explains that surgery to remove the polyps is one of the most common treatments for this disease. However, nasal and sinus polyps in these patients almost always regrow. “Once the patient has entered the cycle of growing polyps, it’s very hard to get out,” she says. Another common treatment is oral steroids, but these drugs are fraught with many harmful side effects and also only temporarily treat the disease.

She and her Johns Hopkins colleagues have long studied sinusitis, often growing sinus cells isolated from patients in petri dishes. After noticing that cells from patients with polyps typically multiplied faster than cells from normal patients, the researchers speculated that cells from polyp patients might be producing extra amounts of some type of growth factor, a protein that encourages cell growth.

This kind of sinusitis is not subtle and doctors can easily identify it by looking at patients from across the room, as per Jean Kim, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology and Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Allergy and Asthma Center at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

The findings were published in the Dec. 1 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and highlighted on the fact that medical practitioners can treat sinusitis in patients with polyps by making use of therapies that minimize VEGF in sinus tissues.