You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Leading article
The impact of corticosteroids on growth and bone health
  1. T Mushtaq1,
  2. S F Ahmed2
  1. 1Dept of Integrative Biology, Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK
  2. 2Dept of Child Health, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, Glasgow, UK
  1. Correspondence to:
    Dr S F Ahmed, Dept of Child Health, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, Glasgow G3 8SJ, UK;
    gcl328{at}clinmed.gla.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.87.2.93

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    An examination of current evidence

    Glucocorticoids (GC) are important regulators of diverse physiological systems and are often used in the treatment of a number of chronic inflammatory, autoimmune, and neoplastic diseases. It is estimated that 10% of children may require some form of GC at some point in their childhood.1 Impairment of childhood growth with an approximate cortisone dose of 1.5 mg/kg/day was first described over 40 years ago; osteopenia in children receiving a prednisolone dose of less than 0.16 mg/kg/day has also been reported.2,3 The maintenance of growth and bone health is a complex process that can be influenced not only by drugs, but also by the nutritional status of the patient and the underlying disease process. The purpose of this review is to examine the current evidence for linking GC to adverse growth and bone health in childhood disorders that commonly require GC therapy.

    PATHOPHYSIOLOGY

    Loss of bone and deterioration in short term growth are dependent on the type and dose of GC and occur most prominently over the first six months of treatment.4–6 Although it is generally believed that GC affect trabecular bone more than cortical bone, a recent study of fractures in children following steroid exposure as part of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) treatment showed a high incidence of cortical bone involvement, suggesting that the disease process may interact with GC usage in influencing site of bone loss.7,8

    GC have a suppressive effect on osteoblastogenesis in the bone marrow and promote the apoptosis of osteoblasts and osteocytes, thus leading to decreased bone formation.9 Accumulation of apoptotic osteocytes may also explain the so called “osteonecrosis”, also known as aseptic or avascular necrosis. There is some evidence to suggest that GC may also increase bone resorption by extending the lifespan of …

    View Full Text