Deflazacort versus prednisone in patients with giant cell arteritis: effects on bone mass loss.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D and Prednisone.

To compare bone mass loss due to deflazacort versus prednisone in longterm treatment of patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) in a randomized double blind comparative trial.

Their intent was (1) to evaluate bone mineral density, using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, at baseline and comparatively at 3, 6, and 12 mo; vertebral fractures by Meunier score and size variations after 12 mo treatments were also analyzed; (2) to assess calcium/phosphate metabolism modifications in both groups at baseline and after 12 mo.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

Seventy-four patients were included in a prospective multicenter study.

Calcium and vitamin D supplements were also provided to all subjects.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and multicenter study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D.

Running at several centres spread the Vitamin D study over different clinics and patient groups.

Half received deflazacort (DFZ) and the other half prednisone (PR) for a minimum of 12 months.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Absorptiometry, Photon, Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Bone Density, Bone Diseases, Metabolic, Calcium, Giant Cell Arteritis and Glucocorticoids.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and multicenter study of Vitamin D and Prednisone.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2001 (The Journal of rheumatology), a journal based in Canada.

More context: the related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, all human trials.