Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
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 …
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.
↵† Information provided by author.