REVIEWS   

Panminerva Medica 2007 March;49(1):29-33

Copyright © 2007 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Corticosteroids, a review

Melillo N., Corrado A., Quarta L., Cantatore F. P.

Rheumatology Clinic C. d’Avanzo,Hospital Foggia, Italy

Recent studies have shown a strong correlation between the nervous, endocrine and immune systems. Knowledge of how these systems interact is important for understanding the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to open new therapeutic perspectives. New theories suggest that in RA there is an inappropriate response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to the increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines, resulting in a corticosteroid (CS) insufficiency state. While recent observations have questioned the positive effect of CS on the progression of joint damage, efficacious new drugs such as anti-TNF have attracted attention to agents without the side effects of CS. Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein, a new biohumoral marker, has recently led to a re-evaluation of CS in RA therapy.