Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Inhaled budesonide and prednisone led to similar rates of asthma relapse after emergency department discharge

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.


 
 QUESTION: In patients who are discharged from the emergency department after a severe acute asthma attack, do high doses of prednisone and inhaled budesonide lead to similar rates of asthma relapse?

Design

Randomised (unclear allocation concealment*), blinded {clinicians, patients, outcome assessors, and statisticians},* controlled trial with 7–10 day follow up.

Setting

3 university affiliated urban emergency departments in Canada.

Patients

185 patients who were 15–70 years of age, had an acute asthma exacerbation, were well enough to be discharged (postbronchodilator FEV1 > 50% of predicted normal rate), and were able to use Turbuhaler correctly. Exclusion criteria included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, intolerance to systemic glucocorticosteroids, peptic ulcer disease, active tuberculosis, fungal infection, type 1 diabetes mellitus, moderate to severe hypertension, pregnancy, lactation, or no effective contraception use …

View Full Text

Footnotes

  • Source of funding: Astra Pharma Inc.

  • For correspondence: Dr J M FitzGerald, Respiratory Clinic, Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre, 2775 Heather Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 1J5, Canada. Fax +1 604 875 4695.

  • * See glossary.

  • Information provided by author.