Reliever inhalers linked to risk of asthma deaths

3.00pm

LONDON - Asthma patients who excessively use reliever-type inhalers to improve their breathing could face a higher risk of dying from the disease, say American scientists.

A study at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals in the United States said long-acting steroid preventive inhalers are safer than beta agonists, or reliever inhalers.

"Regular use of inhaled steroids is associated with a decreased risk of asthma death, and excessive use of short acting beta agonists is associated with a markedly increased risk of asthma death," DrSimon Lanes said in a report in the journal Thorax.

The scientists calculated the relative risk of dying from asthma for patients taking beta agonists and steroids based on an analysis of data on 96,000 patients in Britain between 1994 and 1998.

They found that regular use of inhaled steroids was associated with a 60 per cent reduction in the risk of asthma death compared to less frequent use.

"However plausible or implausible this may be, there is no evidence to suggest that short acting beta agonists have any beneficial effect on asthma death, while inhaled steroids appear to be considerably more effective in preventing asthma death than short acting beta agonists," Lanes added in the study funding by his company.

Dr John Harvey, of the British Thoracic Society, said the research demonstrates the importance for asthma sufferers to use both reliever and preventer medicines because both have their place in managing mild and severe asthma correctly.

"The British Thoracic Society would advise any patient concerned about their use of relievers as part of their asthma management plan to talk to their GP (general practitioner)," he said in a statement.

Asthma is a chronic lung disease that causes wheezing and difficulty breathing. It affects the small tube that carries air in and out of the lungs, which become inflamed by triggers such as colds, exercise, animals, pollen and dust mites.

- REUTERS

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