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

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

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)369-377
JournalEuropean Journal of Endocrinology
Volume171
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Endocrinology and Diabetes

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