Best practice in Duchenne muscular dystrophy

摘要

I personally find the prednisone dosage recommended in the Lancet Neurology article extremely high. Consider this scene: a DMD boy, 5 years old. How can one give him 0.75 mg/kg/day of prednisone continuously for say 10-15 years? I have noted that the paper mentions reducing by 25-33% if necessary, but still in the long run it may turn out to be a health hazard. Some clinicians advocate lower dosages, and our group has been one of them. We were able to prolong ambulation and prevent scoliosis in a group of children with DMD with a 0.75 mg/kg alternate day regimen [1].