Young children with asthma benefit from inhaled corticosteroids
by admin ~ March 2nd, 2010.
Pre-school-aged children at high risk for asthma and suffering from breathing complications can expect significant relief when inhaled corticosteroids are used on a daily basis, as per results from the Childhood Asthma Research and Education (CARE) Network supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
It was however noted during the study that inhaled corticosteroids are not useful to prevent the development of persistent asthma in these children.
From News-Medical.Net:
Studies in older children and adults show that the most effective long-term control medicine for persistent asthma (symptoms more than two days a week or more than twice a month at night) is inhaled corticosteroids, which reduce airway swelling and help prevent asthma symptoms (e.g., asthma attacks). The Prevention of Early Asthma in Kids (PEAK) multicenter clinical trial, published in the May 11, 2006, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, answers a question that pediatricians and researchers have been asking for years: Can medicine that treats the inflammation of asthma be used to prevent the disease if given early enough in at-risk patients?
“Asthma is an enormous public health problem, and this study was designed to see if we could stop the development of asthma in its tracks - while the lungs are still developing - in young children known to be at high risk,” said NHLBI Director Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD. “Although this study shows that inhaled corticosteroids do not prevent chronic asthma, it provides clear evidence that inhaled corticosteroids benefit even some of our youngest patients.”
The PEAK study results endorse extending the use of inhaled corticosteroids to pre-school children at high risk for asthma.
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