New study could change treatment for asthma_美文

New study could change treatment for asthma

“The amount of corticosteroid that a patient received during the trial was dependent upon the amount of symptoms they had. When they had fewer symptoms they got less steroid when they had more symptoms they got more steroid,” Calhoun said.

After adjusting medication, doctors looked at three different ways of treating the patients.

One group received their adjusted dose of steroids and took them as usual. Another group had their steroid levels adjusted after taking sophisticated breath tests for asthma and a third group was told to use inhalers only when their symptoms flared up.

What the researchers found was that this last group did just as well as the other two. The major difference was the last group used only half as much medication.

“The symptoms-based arm (group) resulted in a reduced use of inhaled corticosteroids, a 50 percent reduction. It also resulted in a reduction in exacerbation in the autumn, a time when exacerbation are typically high and it also resulted in a reduction in absenteeism from school or work,” Calhoun said.

Under his doctor's care, Frank Grizzaffi no longer follows his old regimen. “I’ll take one puff in the morning and that usually takes care of it the rest of the day. I feel great, I feel really good,” Grizzaffi said.

Dr. Calhoun advises patients with mild to moderate asthma to check with their doctors to see if this strategy might work for them. The study was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.