Leukotriene Antagonists as First-Line or Add-On Asthma-Controller Therapy

Leukotriene antagonists as first-line or add-on asthma-controller therapy.

BACKGROUND Most randomized trials of treatment for asthma study highly selected patients under idealized conditions. METHODS We conducted two parallel, multicenter, pragmatic trials to evaluate the real-world effectiveness of a leukotriene-receptor antagonist (LTRA) as compared with either an inhaled glucocorticoid for first-line asthma-controller therapy or a long-acting beta(2)-agonist (LAB...

What about add-on second-line controller therapy?

(VEGF) levels in our study. The lowest and highest levels that we observed were 202 pg/mL and 1,538 pg/mL, respectively. We have five patients with VEGF levels 1,000 pg/mL. All of these patients have bilateral infiltration in their chest radiographs. A significant correlation (p 0.05) was observed between VEGF levels and fever in active pulmonary tuberculosis patients. However, there was not an...

The emerging role of leukotriene antagonists in asthma therapy.

T here are two " Sounding Board " articles published in the September 3, 1998, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that at first glance, do not seem to have much relationship to one another. 1,2 The first article describes ethical guidelines for practicing physicians to prevent financial considerations from interfering with decisions about medical care. The second article reviews the p...

Role of leukotriene receptor antagonists in asthma.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects >300 million people worldwide. However, inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), the gold standard therapy for persistent asthma, cannot suppress every component of airway inflammation and often fail to adequately penetrate the small airways in order completely suppress eosinophilia. Cysteinyl leukotrienes are important inflammatory factors that are i...

Leukotriene receptor antagonists: useful in acute asthma?