Black teenagers are three times more likely to be resistant to steroid treatment, according to a research conducted at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center. It was remarked by Joseph Spahn, M.D., a pediatric allergist and director of the Immunopharmacology Lab at National Jewish, that African-American children are prone to be resistant to steroid therapy when it comes to treating asthma.
It is worthwhile to note that several recent epidemiological studies have suggested that black asthmatic teens are sicker and suffer from a higher mortality rate than their white counterparts.
From News.Bio-Medicine.Org:
“Our results suggest that children with steroid-resistant asthma are more likely to be African-American, to have required treatment with oral steroids at an earlier age and to require larger amounts of oral steroids for only marginal control of their asthma,” said Joseph Spahn, M.D., a pediatric allergist and director of the Immunopharmacology Lab at National Jewish.
Other recent epidemiological studies have shown that blacks with asthma are sicker and have a higher mortality rate than whites with asthma. Doctors at National Jewish now are trying to determine whether blacks have a more vigorous immune response to airway inflammation–which means that higher doses of steroids must be used to control inflammation–or a poor response to steroids secondary to a genetic resistance to the drugs.
“The theory is that with ongoing airway inflammation you get worsening asthma and diminished steroid sensitivity,” Dr. Spahn said.
This study of 164 teen-agers treated at National Jewish also showed that 25 percent of the group was steroid resistant. Children with less than a 15 percent improvement in lung function following a “burst” of inhaled steroids–high doses over seven days–were considered steroid resistant.
“Twenty-five percent of the kids admitted to National Jewish have steroid-resistant asthma, which is much greater than anyone thought,” Dr. Spahn said.
It was concluded that further studies would be conducted very soon to ascertain if the black teens are also prone to have a more vigorous immune response to airway inflammation or not.
The study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
