title: [The serum testosterone level of patients with bronchial asthma treated with corticosteroids and untreated].
abstract: The testosterone basic level was followed up in 427 asthmatic male patients treated and not treated with corticosteroids. In 172 of them (40.68%) basic low blood testosterone was found, in 1/3 of the patients (32.32%) the morning testosterone level was below 200 ng% and in 37 patients (8.67%) it was below 100 ng%. Low blood testosterone was more frequent in the corticosteroid-treated patients than in the patients who had never been treated with corticosteroids (31.63%). Among the untreated patients low blood testosterone was more frequent in the patients with nonatopic (40.82%) than in the patients with atopic (24.67%) and mixed type (27.16%) of bronchial asthma. Low blood testosterone was found mainly in the patients with severe (37.76%) and moderate (40.00%) form of the disease and very rarely in patients with mild form of bronchial asthma (8.51%). The basic testosterone level changes are probably due to the stress, hypoxia and corticosteroid treatment. The possibility of a direct suppressive action of exo- and endoallergens on the testes are discussed.
authors.forename: Zh
authors.initials: Zh
authors.lastname: Mileva
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maleeva
mesh_terms: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D013739:Testosterone
vernacular_title: Serumno testosteronovo nivo pri bolni ot bronkhialna astma, lekuvani i nelekuvani s kortikosteroidi.