ESPE Abstracts

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute inflammatory disorder, associated with systemic vasculitis including coronary artery aneurysms (CAA). Treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) can resolve inflammation. However, about 20% patients show resistant to IVIG treatment and some of the cases required additional treatments. Recently, IVIG plus adjuvant glucocorticoid hormones (GC) has been shown to be an effective therapy for these patients, su...

Background: Synthetic glucocorticoid (GC) form crucial first-line treatment for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, some patients reveal GC resistance with unknown mechanism. We have previously shown that reciprocal regulation of the GC metabolizing enzymes, 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase types 1 and 2 (11b-HSD1 and 11b-HSD2) is associated with GC sensitivity/resistance in ALL at diagnosis. 11b-HSD1 predominantly regenerates active GC f...