Therapeutically betamethasone

Glucocorticoids have potent anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive properties. This is particularly evident when they are administered at pharmacological doses. A variety of synthetic glucocorticoids, some far more potent than cortisol, have been created for therapeutic use, such as hydrocortisone, prednisone, prednisolone, dexamethasone and betamethasone. 

The therapeutic effectiveness of topically applied corticosteroids is attributed primarily to their antiinflammatory activity. The relative efficacy of topical corticosteroids appears to be in the following order hydrocortisone, prednisolone, betamethasone < hydrocortisone valerate or butyrate, betamethasone valerate, triamcinolone acetonide, flucinolone acetonide < betamethasone dipropionate, fluocino-nide. In addition to the nature of the corticosteroid, its solubility, and, to a lesser extent, the concentration used, clinical efficacy is influenced by the formulation of the preparation. Glucocorticoids appear to have greater efficacy when formulated in ointment bases than in cream or lotion vehicles. This could be attributed to the occlusive effect provided by ointments. The application of an occlusive dressing further enhances penetration and persistence of the steroid (reservoir effect) in the stratum corneum. " ... 

Therapeutic index the ratio of the relative potency for the ED50 to the relative potency for the TED50 betamethasone 17a-valerate has been arbitrarily assigned a value of 1. 

The intrascleral implant is a device that is implanted in the sclera it delivers the drug through the sclera to the intraocular tissues (Fig. 5). Transscleral delivery may be an effective method of achieving therapeutic concentrations of drugs in the posterior segment (24-27). The intrascleral implant that incorporated betamethasone phosphate (BP) successfully delivered the drug to the retina/choroid and vitreous (28). The concentration of BP was maintained at a level that should suppress inflammation in the retina-choroid for more than eight weeks, and did not produce any ocular toxicity. 

For dermatitis, a topical steroid preparation (eg, triamcinolone acetonide, fluocinolone acetonide, flurandrenolone, or betamethasone-17-valerate) is the principal therapeutic agent. Oozing lesions should be treated with wet dressings (moistened with fluids such as 1 40 Burow s solution). Appropriate antibiotics should be given for secondary infection, and oral antihistamines for itching.13 Vesicating lesions have been successfully treated with compresses of a cold silver nitrate solution (1 1,000)... 

The selected compounds studied were the corticoids, betamethasone, and derivatives. Corticoids are a group of drugs with therapeutic action as antiinflammatory, antialergic, and antirheumatic properties. Betamethasone and synthetic derivatives have similar chemical structures (Figure 19.4). Esterification in position 17 and/or 21 leads to compounds with different hydrophobicity and they have been used in different pharmaceutical administrations, log kf for betamethasone and derivatives have been determined in those MEEKC systems and the Equation 19.10 applied for calculation of log P. The measured mobilities and retention factors of the analytes in different MEEKC systems are shown in Table 19.3. 

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