The largest study of its kind on preschoolers has highlighted the fact that high dosages of inhaled corticosteroids can be used as preventive treatment for reducing the severity and time duration of asthma attacks, which are triggered by colds.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and led by Dr. Francine Ducharme, assistant director of clinical research at the Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center and a pediatrics professor at the Université de Montréal.
From News-Medical.Net:
The breakthrough is all the more important, since this age group represents more than half (60 percent) of children that go to emergency departments or are admitted to hospital for asthma attacks. Although viral-induced asthma is frequent in preschool-aged children, optimal management of this disease remains elusive. That’s why Dr. Ducharme has focused her research on improving treatment for asthmatic children, particularly those of preschool age.
The basic treatment for asthma, which consists of administering weak doses of inhaled steroids such as fluticasone on a daily basis, has not proven to be effective in children with viral-induced asthma. For the purposes of the study, 2243 children were screened. Some 17 percent met the criteria for having asthma that was triggered solely by colds, no signs of allergy and had not experienced moderate to severe asthma attacks or symptoms between colds.
The new therapeutic approach was tested in 129 children aged 12 months to six years. By increasing the usual pediatric dose six-fold over a maximum of 10 days and beginning administration as soon as colds started, the team noted a 50 percent decrease in asthma attacks that required oral steroids in children.
It was found by the research team that high doses of corticosteroids (fluticasone), when administered in an inhaled form up to ten days at the onset of a cold can considerably reduce the numbers of moderate or severe asthma attacks that require emergency oral steroids.
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