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Many previous studies have supported the pharmacologic dogma that intravenous corticosteroids exert their physiologic anti-inflammatory effects in acute asthma over the course of several hours. This study suggests that IV methylprednisolone may exert a measurable effect within two hours.
Investigators studied 56 adult asthmatics with PEFRs less than 50% of predicted after one albuterol aerosol treatment. Patients were then randomized to receive either 125 mg methylprednisolone IV or placebo; all received identical schedules of nebulized albuterol and ipratropium. PEFRs were reassessed after one and two hours of treatment. Secondary endpoints included heart rate and admission rates. Patients receiving steroids had significantly greater increa…