Corticosteroid use and bone health management for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in South Korea

This study aimed to determine the current corticosteroid use and bone health management status of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in South Korea. This is a national population-based study utilized information from the databased of Korean National Health Insurance Database. Database regarding bone status, spine radiography findings, bone mineral density, and laboratory test results were obtained, as well as the proportion of patients with spine and lower limb prostheses, occurrence of scoliosis, and age at scoliosis surgery. Deflazacort dose in the ambulant group (aged < 15 years) increased by age and year. The maintenance dose of prednisolone and deflazacort for the 15–19 years group decreased by year. Among the patients, 12.47% underwent spine radiography, 23.11% underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and 22.7% underwent vitamin D tests. Moreover, 40.9% of the patients were prescribed vitamin D at a mean age of 14.6 ± 6.1 years, while 10.22% were prescribed bisphosphonate at 17.92 ± 3.4 years. Further, 16.1% of the patients underwent posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion at 14.4 ± 2.3 years and 5.3% underwent anterior spinal instrumentation and fusion at 14.4 ± 2.3 years. Ankle–foot orthosis and spine orthosis prescriptions were noted in 4.91% and 1.84% of patients, respectively. In this our study, the current corticosteroid use and bone health management status of DMD in South Korea has been presented. The dose prescription for corticosteroid and bone health monitoring did not reach to current recommendation.