title: Antenatal Dexamethasone Exposure in Preterm Infants Is Associated with Allergic Diseases and the Mental Development Index in Children.
abstract: Background:Antenatal steroid administration may benefit fetal lung maturity in preterm infants. Although some studies have shown that this treatment may increase asthma in childhood, the correlation between antenatal dexamethasone exposure and allergic diseases remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between antenatal dexamethasone and T cell expression in childhood allergic diseases.Methods:We recruited a cohort of preterm infants born at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital between 2007 and 2010 with a gestational age of less than 35 weeks and body weight at birth of less than 1500 g. The status of antenatal exposure to steroids and allergic diseases were surveyed using a modified ISAAC questionnaire for subjects aged 2-5 years old. We analyzed Th1/Th2/Th17 expression of mRNA, cytokines (using the Magpix®my-system), and mental development index (MDI).Results:Among the 40 patients that were followed, the data showed that the antenatal dexamethasone exposure group (N= 24) had a significantly higher incidence of allergic diseases (75.0% vs. 18.8%,p< 0.0001) when compared to the non-dexamethasone exposure group (N= 16), especially with regard to asthma (41.7% vs. 0.0%,p= 0.003) and allergic rhinitis (58.3% vs. 18.8%,p= 0.013), but not atopic dermatitis. No statistical difference was observed in the mRNA expression levels of total white blood cell count between the dexamethasone exposure and non-exposure groups (p> 0.05). However, the asthma group had higher IL-5 levels (p= 0.009), and the MDI was shown to be significantly higher in the dexamethasone exposure group (90.38 ± 3.31 vs. 79.94 ± 3.58,p= 0.043) while no significant difference was found between the PDI of the two groups.Conclusions:Exposure to antenatal dexamethasone in preterm infants will increase their susceptibility to allergic diseases, particularly asthma and allergic rhinitis. Preterm infants' exposure to antenatal dexamethasone also results in higher MDI scores. Such increases in allergic diseases may be related to increased IL-5 and IL-10 levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan. proteus@cgmh.org.tw.
authors.forename: Wan-Ning
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan. charllysc@cgmh.org.tw.
authors.forename: Chih-Cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan. yuu2004taiwan@yahoo.com.tw.|Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan. yuu2004taiwan@yahoo.com.tw.
authors.forename: Hong-Ren
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan. huang_li@pie.com.tw.|Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan. huang_li@pie.com.tw.
authors.forename: Li-Tung
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan. dr.hckuo@gmail.com.|Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung 83301, Taiwan. dr.hckuo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ho-Chang
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kuo
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000453:epidemiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000453:epidemiology; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004342:Drug Hypersensitivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D065631:Rhinitis, Allergic / Q000453:epidemiology; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D058504:Th17 Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D003907:Dexamethasone
keywords: allergy; dexamethasone; mental development index (MDI); prenatal; psychomotor developmental index (PDI)