Effect of ciclesonide and fluticasone on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function in adults with mild-to-moderate persistent asthma.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Cosyntropin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Ciclesonide (hydrofluoroalkane propellant) is a novel inhaled corticosteroid with few, if any, clinical adverse events.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 148 patients were involved.

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

This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 12-week study in adults with mild-to-moderate asthma.

One hundred sixty-four patients were randomized and treated; 148 patients completed the study.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Cosyntropin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Cosyntropin.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Cosyntropin could be set against what happens without it.

Fluticasone propionate (chlorofluorocarbon propellant) was used as an active comparator.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Androstadienes, Anti-Asthmatic Agents, Asthma, Cosyntropin, Fluticasone, Hydrocortisone and Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Cosyntropin in 148 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2005 (Annals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related Cosyntropin library page, all human trials.