Acute and long-term effects of corticosteroid therapy on bone metabolism in patients with kidney diseases.

Aim: The aim of our study was to examine parameters of bone metabolism during pulse and long-term methylprednisolone (MP) treatment in patients with kidney diseases.

Methods: In 13 patients with RPGN, treated with intravenous MP pulses, followed by tapering oral doses, osteocalcin (OC) and β-CrossLaps (β-CL) were measured before treatment, after the 3rd pulse, then 1 and 3 months later ("acute study"). In a separate set of analyses serum markers of bone metabolism and bone mineral density (BMD) were studied in 40 patients on maintenance MP therapy ("chronic study").