Two-in-one inhalators cut asthma attacks among young children

Inshals that combine, to give immigration relief with a longer term preventative effect, is already recommended as a standard treatment for mild asthma among people aged 12 and over in the UK, the United States and another country. Now a study of nearly 400 children in New Zealand has shown that these inhalators are also more effective in younger children, almost halved the number of asthma attacks.

It is still if national and international guide guidelines will be the basis of these findings, says team member Andy Bush at Imperial College London, but the results are clear. “A person if it was my child with asthma, I would have them on the combination,” he says.

The standard treatment for mild asthma used to be inhalators containing salbutamol, also known as albiterol, which relaxes muscle in the airways for 3 or 4 hours after use. These “connection” inhalers were used as down.

If the connection of inhalers alone was inadequate, people got another, separate inhalator containing a steroid that reduces the immunomenitis caused by asthma. It was believed that these “preventative” inhalers should be used regularly to have a protective effect, Sayh. “The previous thing was that you had to take your inhaled steroids twice daily or they don’t work,” says Bush. “Now it is clear that it is not the requirement of the case.”

Large trials in teens and adults have shown that combination inhals are more effective than this previous regime, even when used only as down. The steroid of these combination inequitations is called budesonide and the link is formoterol that works in the same way as salbutamol, but its effects for 12 hours.

There have been concerns about children using combination of inhalers, as the steroid component can affect their growth, but the latest study found no effect during the year of the trial. This involved 360 children who were randomly awarded to receive either Budesonid formoterol or salbutamol for on-demand symptom relief, with one step up to twice daily budesonide formoterol or steroid fluticasone, respective in the event of a serious asthma attack.

In other trials, the combination of inhaler reduced the total steroid intake, says Bush. That’s because when people use them like Neded, the dose of inhaled steroids they receive, they receive up and down in line with the severity of their symptoms. Reducing the number of attacks also lowers the number of people who need to be “stepped up” to twice daily use of the combination inhaler, or which requires a course with steroid pills.