The value of glucocorticoid co-therapy in different rheumatic diseases - positive and adverse effects

Table 2 General use of glucocorticoids in rheumatology.

	Initial oral dose			Intravenous, very high dose or pulse therapy	Intra-articular injection
	Low	Medium	High
Arthritides
Gouty arthritis, acute	-	2	2	-	2
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis	-	1	1	-	1
Osteoarthritis	-	-	-	-	1
Acute calcium pyrophosphate crystal arthritis	-	-	-	-	2
Psoriatic arthritis	-	1	-	-	2
Reactive arthritis	-	-	-	-	1
Rheumatic fever	-	1	1	-	-
Rheumatoid arthritis	2	2	1	1	2
Collagen disorders
Dermatomyositis, polymyositis	-	-	3	1	-
Mixed connective tissue disease	-	1	-	1	1
Polymyalgia rheumatica	-	3	-	1	-
Sjögren's syndrome, primary	-	-	1	-	-
Systemic lupus erythematosus	-	2	1	1	-
Systemic sclerosis	-	1	-	-	-
Systemic vasculitides
In general	-	-	3	1	-

Initial dose, the dose at the start of therapy, will often be decreased in time depending on disease activity: low, ≤7.5 mg prednisone equivalent/day; medium, >7.5 but≤30 mg prednisone equivalent/day; high, >30 but ≤100 mg prednisone equivalent/day; very high, >100 mg prednisone equivalent/day. -, rare use; 1, infrequent use, for therapy-resistant disease, complications, severe flare, major exacerbation, and for bridging the lag-time of recently started therapy; 2, frequently added to/used as the basic therapeutic strategy; 3, basic part of the therapeutic strategy. With permission from BMJ publishing group [129].

ISSN: 1478-6362