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Prospective evaluation of long-term safety of dual-release hydrocortisone replacement administered once daily in patients with adrenal insufficiency.

Author

  • Anna G Nilsson
  • Claudio Marelli
  • David Fitts
  • Ragnhildur Bergthorsdottir
  • Pia Burman
  • Per Dahlqvist
  • Bertil Ekman
  • Britt Edén Engström
  • Tommy Olsson
  • Oskar Ragnarsson
  • Mats Ryberg
  • Jeanette Wahlberg
  • Hans Lennernas
  • Stanko Skrtic
  • Gudmundur Johannsson

Summary, in English

Objective: The objective was to assess the long-term safety profile of dual-release hydrocortisone (DR-HC) in patients with adrenal insufficiency. Design: Randomized, open-label, crossover trial of DR-HC or thrice-daily hydrocortisone for 3 months each (stage 1) followed by two consecutive, prospective, open-label studies of DR-HC for 6 months (stage 2) and 18 months (stage 3) at five university clinics in Sweden. Methods: Sixty-four adults with primary AI started stage 1 and an additional 16 entered stage 3. Patients received DR-HC 20-40 mg once daily and hydrocortisone 20-40 mg divided into three daily doses (stage 1 only). Main outcome measures were adverse events (AEs) and intercurrent illness (self-reported hydrocortisone use during illness). Results: In stage 1, patients had a median 1.5 (range 1-9) intercurrent illness events with DR-HC and 1.0 (1-8) with thrice-daily hydrocortisone. AEs during stage 1 were not related to the cortisol exposure-time profile. The percentage of patients with one or more AEs during stage 1 (73.4% with DR-HC; 65.6% with thrice-daily hydrocortisone) decreased during stage 2, when all patients received DR-HC (51% in the first 3 months; 54% in the second 3 months). In stages 1-3 combined, 19 patients experienced 27 serious AEs, equating to 18.6 serious AEs/100 patient-years of DR-HC exposure. Conclusions: This long-term prospective trial is the first to document the safety of DR-HC in patients with primary AI, and has demonstrated that such treatment is well tolerated during 24 consecutive months of therapy.

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Pages

369-377

Publication/Series

European Journal of Endocrinology

Volume

171

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Society of the European Journal of Endocrinology

Topic

  • Endocrinology and Diabetes

Status

Published

Research group

  • Genomics, Diabetes and Endocrinology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1479-683X