Mometasone furoate 0.1%-salicylic acid 5% ointment twice daily versus fluocinonide 0.05% ointment twice daily in the management of patients with psoriasis.

This study compared the clinical efficacy and safety of the combination agent mometasone furoate 0.1%-salicylic acid 5% ointment with those of the single agent fluocinonide 0.05% ointment, each applied twice daily for 21 days, in the treatment of patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Forty adult patients were included in this single-center, randomized, double-masked, intraindividual, bilateral-paired comparative trial. Two similar, bilaterally symmetrical target lesions on the trunk, arms, or legs of each patient were selected for treatment and evaluation. One lesion was treated with mometasone furoate 0.1%-salicylic acid 5% ointment, and the other was treated with fluocinonide 0.05% ointment, both twice daily for 21 days. Treatment was randomly assigned to the right or left side of the body. Signs of psoriasis (ie, erythema, induration, and scaling) and overall clinical response were evaluated and scored on days 4, 8, 15, and 22 and compared against baseline. Patients were asked to evaluate the treatments for efficacy and acceptability at each visit. The primary efficacy parameter was the mean percentage of improvement in total sign scores for the target lesions. Safety was evaluated based on clinical observation and patients' reports. Beginning with day 15, statistically significant differences favoring mometasone furoate 0.1%-salicylic acid 5% ointment over fluocinonide 0.05% ointment were seen in individual and total sign scores, as well as in overall global clinical response. On day 15, 20 patients expressed a preference for one treatment over the other, and 20 patients made no distinction between the two. Of those who expressed a preference, significantly more patients believed mometasone furoate 0.1%-salicylic acid 5% ointment to be better than fluocinonide 0.05% ointment. On day 22, of 25 patients who expressed a preference, significantly more patients thought mometasone furoate 0.1%-salicylic acid 5% ointment was better than fluocinonide 0.05% ointment. No adverse events were recorded for either treatment group. The combination mometasone furoate 0.1%-salicylic acid 5% ointment was significantly more efficacious than and equally as safe as fluocinonide 0.05% ointment in the management of patients with plaque psoriasis and was preferred by a greater number of patients.

Mometasone furoate 0.1%-salicylic acid 5% ointment versus mometasone furoate 0.1% ointment in the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis: a multicenter study.

Topical corticosteroids and keratolytics are both used widely in the management of patients with psoriasis. A combination of the two types of agents may provide enhanced relief. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of the combination ointment mometasone furoate 0.1% plus salicylic acid 5% with that of mometasone furoate 0.1% ointment in the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis vulgaris. A total of 408 patients were enrolled in this controlled, randomized, double-masked, parallel-group, multicenter comparison. Patients applied either mometasone furoate-salicylic acid ointment or mometasone furoate ointment alone to target lesions twice daily for 21 days. Severity of erythema, induration, and scaling were scored at baseline and at days 4, 8, 15, and 22. An evaluation of overall change in disease status of all treated lesions was performed at each follow-up visit. Adverse events were also monitored and scored, including signs of skin atrophy. Beginning on day 8, the combination of mometasone furoate-salicylic acid was significantly more effective than mometasone furoate alone, as indicated by the mean percentage of improvement in total disease scores, mean total disease sign scores, and the individual score for scaling. Similarly, the combination was more effective beginning on day 15, as indicated by the global evaluation of overall clinical response and individual scores for erythema and induration. Both treatments were well tolerated. Mometasone furoate-salicylic acid ointment provides more effective treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis than does mometasone furoate ointment alone and is safe and well tolerated.

Micronized progesterone regulation of the endometrial glandular cycling pool.

We sought to determine if micronized progesterone in estrogen-primed women has an effect on the available cycling pool of proliferating glandular cells by studying 107 postmenopausal women who participated in a double-blind cyclical HRT trial. Each received 0.625 mg/day of conjugated equine estrogen (Premarin) orally for 6 weeks (cycle 1), followed by a baseline endometrial biopsy. These women were randomized to one of four doses (100 through 400 mg/day) of progesterone taken the last 10 days of each cycle or to estrogen only. Cyclical HRT (25-day cycles) was continued for three more cycles. Endometrial biopsies were performed at the end of cycle 4 and 64 subjects demonstrated an adequate biopsy for immunohistochemical evaluation. The number of proliferating gland cells was determined by an immunohistochemical stain measuring positive MIB1 staining nuclei per thousand gland cells. The number of proliferating endometrial gland cells in the cycling pool of women receiving 300- and 400-mg daily doses of progesterone was low (mean 4.9 and 1.7, respectively) when compared with women receiving 100 mg progesterone (mean 27.0) or to unopposed estrogen (mean 30.3). Late secretory endometrium from 19 premenopausal women had a mean of 0.6. In the progesterone-treated subjects, biopsies showed that secretory maturation increased as the serum progesterone and doses of progesterone increased. We conclude that micronized progesterone given to estrogen-primed menopausal women results in a dose dependent decrease in endometrial gland proliferation. The use of an immunohistochemical stain and the diagnosis of histologic secretory maturation are complementary techniques in determining the inhibition of glandular proliferation.