NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among patients with uncontrolled moderate to severe asthma, a fixed-dose combination of albuterol and budesonide gives better as-needed relief than albuterol alone, a large international study shows.
Over 24 weeks, the combination lowered the risk of severe exacerbation by 26% (P=0.001) when the doses were 180 ug of albuterol and 160 ug of budesonide. A 180 ug dose of albuterol was used in the control group.
The reduction was 16% (P=0.052) when 180 ug of albuterol was combined with 80 ug of budesonide, researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The 3,132 volunteers in the randomized trial had been taking a wide range of inhaled glucocorticoids as maintenance therapies and they continued using them throughout the study.
The findings show that the fixed-dose combination of an inhaled glucocorticoid and a fast-acting bronchodilator can be used as rescue therapy in addition to inhaled glucocorticoid-containing maintenance therapy.
"This is a simple strategy that improves the management of asthma," chief author Dr. Alberto Papi of the University of Ferrara Medical School, in Italy, told Reuters Health by phone.
"It's more effective without having to teach patients to do something different from what they're doing," he added.
