Local Corticosteroid Use May Be Associated With More Adverse Cardiometabolic Traits, Particularly In Women,

“Local corticosteroid use is associated with more adverse cardiometabolic traits, especially the inhaled administration forms, with the risk being most pronounced for women,” researchers found after evaluating “data from the Lifelines Cohort Study on 140,879 adults (58.5% women).” The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. https://www.healio.com/endocrinology/cardiometabolic-disorders/news/in-the-journals/%7B91e79548-510b-45a1-9420-122908f456c6%7D/corticosteroid-use-increases-metabolic-syndrome-risk-in-women. Among women, BMI, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure and triglycerides were higher in corticosteroid users compared with nonusers. Local corticosteroid use was associated with higher fasting serum glucose levels and systemic corticosteroid use was associated with increased HDL cholesterol and decreased fasting serum glucose. Local corticosteroid use in men was associated with a higher waist circumference and diastolic BP, whereas systemic corticosteroid use was associated with higher HDL cholesterol and lower fasting serum glucose. “Use of local [corticosteroids], particularly inhaled types, as well as systemic [corticosteroids] was associated with higher likelihood of having [metabolic syndrome], higher BMI, and other adverse cardiometabolic traits, especially among women,” the researchers wrote. “Since the inhaled [corticosteroids] are the main group of prescribed [corticosteroids] this might be a substantial risk to public health. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and evaluate the direction of causality and mechanisms behind these associations.” – by Amber Cox https://www.healio.com/endocrinology/cardiometabolic-disorders/news/in-the-journals/%7B91e79548-510b-45a1-9420-122908f456c6%7D/corticosteroid-use-increases-metabolic-syndrome-risk-in-women