Posts Tagged ‘corticosteroid’

Individuals suffering from chronic asthma are likely to benefit from a new treatment option that can help them manage their health effectively with a single prescribed inhaler including two medicines, as per a new review.

The involved researchers were studying the effectiveness of both a low-dose corticosteroid (budesonide) and beta2-agonist (formoterol) in a single inhaler.

The review appeared in an issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization evaluating research in all health care aspects.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Encouraging people to use their preventive medication is important, as it is often the case that people with asthma default on their inhaled corticosteroids,” said lead reviewer Christopher Cates, M.D., at the Community Health Sciences of St. George’s at the University of London. “This is partly because inhaled steroids do not make an immediate difference to asthma symptoms.”

In most studies, participants had treatment with a single inhaler – one inhalation of 80/4.5 milligrams of budesonide/formoterol twice daily, and as needed. Patients in the control groups used their prescribed inhaled corticosteroid with a separate reliever inhaler. Cates and his colleague evaluated three studies that included more than 4,200 adults and adolescents with chronic asthma. One study also included 224 children.

The Cochrane reviewers found no significant reduction in the number of asthma exacerbations that required hospitalization among the patients who used single inhaler therapy.

It was remarked by Cates that one benefit of combined inhalers is that inhaled corticosteroids can be administered on an automatic basis with the beta-agonist when it comes to relieving symptoms.

Last September 29, 2009, at the recent Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) board meeting, held in Louisville, Kentucky, issues such as the consumption of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and how they may affect pre-race exams by regulatory veterinarians were tackled.

The board of directors has accredited the formation of a committee to supervise the implementation of the Drug Testing Initiative (DTI) Task Force recommendations on quality assurance and laboratory accreditation programs for U.S. horse racing drug-testing laboratories.

Dr. Tom David of the Louisiana State Racing Commission and chairman of the ARCI Racing Regulatory Veterinarian Committee explained the examining veterinarian’s interest over current NSAID and corticosteroid policies. RMTC Scientific Advisory Committee was previously appointed with the job of reexamining all existing research on NSAIDs, particularly phenylbutazone.

The RMTC Scientific Advisory Committee has noted different options for consideration in future recommendations on the administration times and threshold concentrations for NSAIDs.

The RMTC previously announced that it was carrying out research on corticosteroids commonly used in racing and the board was updated on the status of that project. A copy of Dr. Soma’s study and Dr. David’s remarks can be found at the RMTC website.

From Harness Link:

At the board meeting, other integrity issues were also discussed in depth, including the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and how they may affect pre-race examinations by regulatory veterinarians. Dr. Tom David of the Louisiana State Racing Commission and chairman of the ARCI Racing Regulatory Veterinarian Committee explained the examining veterinarian’s concern over current NSAID and corticosteroid policies.