New York -- U.S. medical scientists have determined a common steroid treatment used to fight a lower respiratory viral infection in infants isn't effective.

The multi-center study, led by the University of Utah's Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, found the often used steroid treatment for bronchiolitis -- the most common cause of infant hospitalization -- failed to prevent hospitalization or improve symptoms.

"Our study shows treating bronchiolitis with steroids doesn't work," said study co-author Dr. Joan Bregstein of the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center. "We hope this study will resolve some of the uncertainty for physicians and families, as we move forward in developing better means of preventing and treating the infection."

Current recommendations suggest simple supportive care is the best available treatment for bronchiolitis, although the researchers note steroid-based medications still play an important role in other respiratory illnesses of childhood, such as asthma and croup.

The research, conducted for the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network, is reported in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.