Pharmacotherapy of severe asthma

Factors associated with quality of life in patients with severe asthma: the impact of pharmacotherapy

OBJECTIVE To identify, characterize, and quantify associations of various factors with quality of life (QoL) in patients with asthma, according to the pharmacotherapy employed. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study involving 49 patients (≥ 18 years of age) with severe uncontrolled or refractory asthma treated at a specialized outpatient clinic of the Brazilian Unified Health Care System, r...

Pharmacotherapy--treatment of intermittent asthma with ICSs.

The Salmeterol Multicenter Asthma Research Trial: a comparison of usual pharmacotherapy for asthma or usual pharmacotherapy plus salmeterol.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To compare the safety of salmeterol xinafoate or placebo added to usual asthma care. DESIGN A 28-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, observational study. SETTING Study subjects were seen once in the study physician's office for screening and were provided all blinded study medication for the entire study period. Follow-up by telephone was scheduled every 4 we...

[Severe asthma].

Definitions of Severe Asthma

DEFINITIONS OF SEVERE ASTHMA Nomenclature is important in severe asthma. One of the first definitions of ‘difficult asthma’ was made by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) task force.5 This definition was based on the number of exacerbations, severity of symptoms, doses of ICS, add-on medication and SABA. Following this, an American Thoracic Society (ATS) workshop established the term ‘refra...