[Assessment of adrenal function on steroid using renal diseases in children using the modified original ACTH...

Steroid therapy occupies a very important position in various types of kidney diseases in children. The period of steroid therapy in kidney disease tends to extend over a long time and the amount of medication tends to be high. Inhibition of the adrenal function because of steroid therapy is one of the major side effects requiring considerable care. In the present investigation, we examined the inhibition of adrenal function in various pediatric renal diseases using synthetic ACTH. In this study, we checked the serum 11-OHCS and cortisol levels and found that in nephrotic syndrome, the inhibition already existed at sideration. In other diseases we found inhibition of adrenal function using steroid and improvement of the function on reduction of the steroid dose. Patients who used steroid every other day showed better improvement. Therefore, we suggest that in nephrotic syndrome, the inhibition of adrenal function may participate in sideration in the syndrome. It was also found that reduction of the steroid given every other day inhibited the adrenal function to a lesser extent. We found that our challenge test using ACTH is safe and very useful for determining adrenal function.