Manuel De Castro

Dr. Manuel DeCastro is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College and Nursery Site Director at the Orange Regional Medical Center.

His clinical interest is comparing the postnatal use of betamethasone and dexamethasone in extremely low birth weight infants with evolving bronchopulmonary disease.

Previous data has shown that the use of postnatal BETA showed a reduction in FiO2 requirement comparable to DEXA in the 14d following initiation of treatment with less magnitude of metabolic side effects on serum glucose and daily weight change. There was no incidence of PVL in the BETA treated group. BETA has a slower rise in its peak blood levels, is a 50:50 acetate/phosphate mixture, crosses the blood-brain-barrier more slowly in animals and was used at a lower dose for a shorter duration than DEXA. These data suggest that short course BETA may be a more suitable therapy for evolving BPD.