All issues > Volume 32(9); 1989

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1989;32(9):1259-1264. Published online September 30, 1989.

Methylprednisolone Pulse Therapy in Childhood Nephropathies.

Moon A Kim¹, Pyung Kil Kim¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Received: January 25, 1989;  Accepted: March 31, 1989.

Abstract

Methylprednisolone “pulse” therapy was performed on 22 patients of childhood nephropathies who showed resistance to conventional therapy. The diseases included steroid-resistant or frequent relaps- ing nephrotic syndrome including minimal change nephrotic syndrome, focal segmental glomer- ulosclerosis, membranous nephropathy, mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis, Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis and SLE nephritis. Methylprednisolone 30 mg/kg/day was administered intravenously over one hour, which was repeated 6 times on every other day. Sixteen of 22 patients (73%) and 11 of 13 patients (85%) with minimal change nephrotic syndrome responded to methylprednisolone pulse therapy. There were no serious side effects. These findings suggest that methylprednisolone pulse therapy may benefit in childhood nephropath- ies resistant to conventional therapy.

Keywords :Methylprednisolone pulse therapy