Lysine-vasopressin in the evaluation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in children with allergic rhinitis treated with intranasal beclomethasone dipropionate or oral prednisone

What Was Tested

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

One of the complications of steroid therapy is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis' suppression, particularly in children where this can lead to growth suppression and other well known complications.

Although there are a large number of studies on suppression of the HPA axis with the use of topical steroids, the subject is still controversial.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 3 children taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are children and teenagers, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

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

The methods mention a period of 4 weeks.

What Was Measured

LVP acts on the pituitary or hypothalamus level, stimulating the whole axis.

Peripheral blood samples through an intravenous line were obtained for serum cortisol measurement at zero, 30, 60, and 90 minutes after the intravenous injection of LVP, before and after the treatment period.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Beclomethasone, Glucocorticoids, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Lypressin, Pituitary-Adrenal System, Prednisone and Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vasopressin in 3 children over 4 weeks.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 1997 (Journal of investigational allergology & clinical immunology), a journal based in Spain.

More context: the Vasopressin compound page, all human trials.