Chest
Low-Dose Budesonide With the Addition of an Increased Dose During Exacerbations Is Effective in Long-term Asthma Control
Section snippets
Population
We recruited 220 adult patients with perennial asthma from 14 outpatient clinics. All patients had documented histories of asthma as defined by the American Thoracic Society.15 Patients following an established treatment with inhaled beclomethasone dipropionate (500 to 1,000 μg/d) for at least 4 weeks were selected if they fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: (1) age between 18 and 65 years; (2) baseline FEV1 ≥ 50% and≤ 90% of predicted values;16 (3) daily peak expiratory flow (PEF)
Population
A group of 220 asthmatic patients were enrolled. Seven patients were withdrawn during the run-in phase and four patients just after randomization. Thus, the intention-to-treat analysis was based on 209 patients. Their characteristics are shown in Table 1. Only 16 patients were current smokers. A group of 22 patients discontinued their treatment: 10 patients were lost at follow-up, 4 patients for adverse events and 8 patients for other reasons. Therefore, out of 213 randomized patients, a group
Discussion
The results of the present study demonstrate that asthmatic patients with respiratory symptoms are kept under control and lung function is stabilized after a short-term treatment with a high dose of inhaled budesonide followed by a long-term treatment with either a standard dose (400 μg bid) of budesonide or a low dose (100 μg bid) of budesonide. This clinical effect is evident for up to a period of 6 months. Moreover, this study suggests that clinical exacerbations of asthma are effectively
Appendix
The Italian Study Group includes the following: Prof. Francesco Bariffi, Cattedra Malattie App. Respiratorio, II Facoltà di Medicina Ospedale Monaldi, Università di Napoli; Prof. Alberto Bisetti, 1a Clinica Tisiologica Università La Sapienza Ospedale Forlanini, Roma; Dr. Fernando De Benedetto, Divisione di Pneumologia, Presidio Ospedaliero S. Camillo de Lellis, Chieti; Dr. Enrico Farina, Divisione di Pneumologia, Ospedale Civile, L'Aquila; Prof. Francesco Ginesu, Clinica Malattie dell'Apparato
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This study was supported by a grant from Astra Farmaceutici, S.p.A., Italy.
A complete list of participants is located in the Appendix.