Extra Caution advised for Physician Prescribing Inhaled Corticosteroids to COPD Patients
by admin ~ July 1st, 2009.
Lung Disease Experts at the Johns Hopkins have advised physicians who have been prescribing inhaled corticosteroids to each of their COPD patients to be extra cautious.
New evidence suggested that inhaled corticosteroids can increase the risk of pneumonia by as much as a full third. The researchers suspected that inhaled corticosteroids are believed to suppress body’s immune system but are not sure how and why such a steroid treatment can raise the risk of lung infection.
From News-Medical.Net:
“Physicians really need to strongly evaluate a patient’s individual characteristics before prescribing these steroid medications, and patients, in turn, should weigh the risks and benefits of taking the drugs, despite their proven record in providing symptomatic relief,” he says.
According to pulmonologist M. Brad Drummond, M.D., M.H.S., who led the study, “catching this bacterial infection can seriously disrupt quality of life, making it harder for COPD patients to breathe and possibly leading to hospitalization.”
Drummond says the new findings should serve as a reminder to people with the severe lung disease to take steps that reduce the chance of getting pneumonia, which doubles their risk of dying when compared to people with healthy lungs. He also advises COPD sufferers, in addition to weighing the benefits and harms of steroids, to get the pneumonia vaccination every five years and an annual flu vaccination because these shots reduce the chance of getting a lung infection.
A postdoctoral clinical research fellow at Hopkins, Drummond also advises lung disease sufferers to take additional precautions, including more frequent hand washing, and vigilant monitoring for the first and earliest signs of sickness, such as increased phlegm in the throat, shortness of breath, fever or chills.
Till Now, physicians were prescribing corticosteroids (inhaled) to the COPD patients to relive them from symptoms such as wheezing, phlegm, physical exhaustion after a short exercise session, and shortness of breath.
Eddy Fan, M.D., senior study investigator, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and critical care specialist, said that there is no need to press the panic button for the COPD patients though the physicians taking care of them need to be extra vigilant while screening and monitoring them & should find the lowest possible working dose of steroids.
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