Influence of chronic glucocorticosteroid therapy on fat free mass in women with severe bronchial asthma

: During lifetime many changes in biochemical and morphological body composition take place. In women those changes are extremely rapid after menopause. Catabolic influence of steroid therapy is an additional factor inducing body composition disturbances. In this study the influence of chronic steroid therapy on fat free mass (FFM) was assessed in postmenopausal women with severe bronchial asthma. The study was performed on 89 (57 study group and 32 control group). Bone mass density (BMD), bone mineral content (BMC) as well as soft tissue FFM in different parts of the body were measured with dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). A cumulative steroids doses were calculated retrospectively for each female with bronchial asthma. The achieved data were statistically analysed. It has been concluded that a long-term systemic steroid therapy in post-menopausal women with severe bronchial asthma has as strong influence on demineralisation of the bones as on the decrease of the soft tissue FFM. The systemic steroids mainly leads to the loss of the FFM in the lower limbs. Inhaled steroids do not aggravate changes in body FFM content.