Inhaled glucocorticoids for persistent asthma temporarily slow growth in prepubertal pediatric patients. Currently, the medical community believes that the effect on net height 1 to 4 years after glucocorticoid inhalation is initiated does not ultimately affect adult height. Dr. H. William Kelly et al. from the University of New Mexico conducted an in-depth study and found that the effects of glucocorticoid inhalation in prepubertal children at the onset of glucocorticoid inhalation continue into adulthood; however, there is no incremental or cumulative effect on height reduction. The paper was published in the Sept. 3, 2012, online edition of the prestigious international journal NEJM. Jun Wang, Intensive Care Unit, Nanping No. 1 Hospital Researchers measured adult height in 943 (90.6%) of 1041 subjects enrolled in a childhood asthma treatment program; for this trial, adult height was defined as height at 24.9 ± 2.7 (mean (± SD)) years of age. Beginning at ages 5 to 13 years, subjects were randomly assigned to receive 400 μg of budesonide, 16 mg of nedocromil, or placebo daily for 4 to 6 years. Using multiple linear regression, corrected for demographic characteristics, asthma characteristics, and height at enrollment, the researchers calculated the adult heights of the children in each active treatment group and compared them with the placebo control group. Results showed that mean adult height was reduced by 1.2 cm (95% confidence interval [CI], -1.9 to -0.5) in subjects in the budesonide-treated group compared with the placebo group (P=0.001), and by 0.2 cm in the nedocromil-treated group (95% CI, – 0.9 to 0.5). The researchers found that the higher the dose of glucocorticoid inhaled by the subjects during the initial two years, the correspondingly greater the reduction in adult height (-0.1 cm height per microgram per kilogram of body weight) (P=0.007). Compared with the placebo group, the budesonide-treated group showed a similar reduction in adult height as the results after 2 years of treatment (-1.3 cm; 95% CI, -1.7 to -0.9). The researchers observed that the slowing of height growth in the budesonide-treated group during the first 2 years occurred primarily in the prepubertal subject population. The researchers concluded that the effects of the initial phase of glucocorticoid inhalation in prepubertal children on height would persist into adulthood; however, there was no incremental or cumulative effect on height reduction.