Evaluation of corticotropin releasing factor stimulation and basal markers of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression in asthmatic patients

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).

In theory, the CRF test would appear to be a suitable replacement for tetracosactrin (cosyntropin) (synthetic ACTH) as a test of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis suppression.

Who Took Part

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

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the ACTH (Corticotropin) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on ACTH (Corticotropin), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

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

Each person switched between ACTH (Corticotropin) and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Administration, Inhalation, Administration, Topical, Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Asthma, Biomarkers and Budesonide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1997 (Chest), a journal based in United States.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page and the CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) compound page, all human trials.