Glucocorticoide: Stellenwert in der therapie der vaskulitis

Only the modification of natural steroids in the middle of the last centure gave insights into the structural requirements for the biological activity of the glucocorticoids (GC). While the delta-4,3-keto-11-beta, 17-alpha,21- trihydroxyl configuration is needed for the GC-activity, an artificial additional dubblebinding in position 1 and 2 lead to a four fold increase of the GC-activity. Of the artifical GC, prednisolone is the most frequently used compound and essential in the therapy of vasculitis today. Dosage, duration and way of application depend on the diagnosis, diseasestage, -extend as well as -activity. Considering the use and side-effects of the GC, experiences from cohort-studies of the late 80-ties help at clinical decision making. For giant cell arteritis (GCA) it was shown, that doses of less then 60 mg/day are needed for the induction of remission. Concerning the visual loss in GCA, time of initiating GC-therapy seems more important than the dosage. In the treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis therapy with GC, later in combination with cyclophosphamide, lead to a significant reduction of mortality. Due to the fact of an increasing survivalrate, therapy-related morbidity becomes a more and more important issue. There is a proven correlation between the dosage respectively duration of the GC-therapy and the risk of GC-associated side-effects, especially the incidence of severe infections. This article gives a short review of the present data of the role of GC in the treatment of vasculitis.