 "New steroid treatment for kids with lung condition")
A new steroid treatment for children suffering from a life-threatening lung condition has been developed by researchers including one of Indian-origin.
According to researchers, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) affects hundreds of thousands of people each year, many of them children, .
Those with this life threatening condition have severely injured and wet lungs, and are treated with mechanical ventilation, they said.
Now, a study led by Kanwaljeet Anand from Stanford University in the US investigated the effects of a new steroid treatment on children suffering from ARDS.
"Over the last 20-30 years researchers have come up with novel therapies but have not been able to move the needle substantially in terms of reducing mortality of ARDS patients," said Anand.
"In this work, we conducted the first-ever randomised control trial and saw clinical differences in children treated with steroids," he said.
ARDS is associated with the inability of lung tissue to take up oxygen. The lungs become very stiff and are incapable of transferring oxygen into the blood.
It can occur following direct injury of the lungs, such as pneumonia, bronchiolitis, following inhalation of toxic gas and near drowning.
It can also develop in patients with severe systemic illnesses. Understanding why ARDS occurs and the differences between mechanisms is key to being able to treat ARDS effectively, researchers said.
For the study, children diagnosed with ARDS in intensive care units requiring mechanical ventilation, were treated with the corticosteroid, methylprednisolone.
The treatment showed suppressed inflammation. Although the trial did not improve mortality or the duration till which the mechanical ventilation was required, the children's ventilation and blood oxygenation improved, said Dai Kimura from Stanford University.
"This is a very significant outcome as, even with a small pilot study, we were able to demonstrate significant differences in those treated with steroids," added Anand.
To develop an effective steroid treatment for ARDS, researchers needed more information how steroids affect lung inflammation. They isolated five biomarkers that are at abnormal levels in ARDS sufferers.
These are associated with the blood clotting system, white blood cell activation, and injury of cells lining the lung and blood vessels.
"The study found that there are important differences in biomarker levels in the children that received the steroids, compared with those who did not," said Kimura.
In developing this framework for biomarker identification, researchers made the first major steps towards being able to understand the causes of ARDS and develop targeted treatment.
The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics.
