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High-dose Steroid use Linked to Heart Disease
November 18, 2004
(Ivanhoe Newswire)--Patients who take high doses of steroids are more than twice as likely to have
cardiovascular complications than patients who do not, according to a new
study.Researchers in the United Kingdom evaluated the health records of 68,781
people who used steroids between 1993 and 1996 and 82,202 people who did not use
steroids. The patients were tracked for one to five years.
Researchers defined high steroid use as more than 7.5 milligrams of oral,
inhaled, topical, rectal and nasal steroids daily.
Results show patients who used high-dose steroids had 2.5-times the risk of
developing cardiovascular disease overall than patients who did not use high
doses of steroids.
While the study did not determine if steroids directly caused heart disease,
researchers say the association is strong enough for doctors and patients to
consider the risks of high-dose steroid use.
Steroids are widely used to treat inflammatory conditions of the skin, lungs,
joints, digestive tract, such as asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and some
types of arthritis.
SOURCE:
Annals of Internal Medicine, 2004;141:764-770
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