INSTEAD: a randomised switch trial of indacaterol versus salmeterol/fluticasone in moderate COPD Authors: Rossi A, van der Molen T, Ricardo del Olmo, et al. Eur Respir J 2014; 44: 6, 1548-1556 SUMMARY: Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) remain a highly controversial treatment for stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Data linking high-dose ICS with complications, such as pneumonia and...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the utility of the determination of airway responsiveness to inhaled adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) and exhaled nitric oxide (ENO) levels as markers for safely reducing the dose of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in patients with asthma well controlled with a moderately high ICS dose. METHODS A total of 37 patients with asthma well controlled for at least 3 months by...

BACKGROUND Guidelines recommend stepping down inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in patients with well-controlled asthma. However, no information is available on the index that should be used to predict the outcome of reducing the ICS dose. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the degree of airway responsiveness to adenosine 5' monophosphate (AMP) as an index for deciding whether to ...

BACKGROUND Most patients who have an asthma exacerbation leading to a visit to an emergency department (ED) will benefit from treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) at discharge. We investigated whether asthmatic children and adolescents were receiving ICS after discharge from the ED and identified the characteristics of patients and physicians associated with their use. METHODS A cohor...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have shown that inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) can exert anti-inflammatory effects for chronic airway diseases, and several observational studies suggest that they play a role as cancer chemopreventive agents, particularly against lung cancer. We aimed to examine whether regular ICS use was associated with a reduced risk for future malignancy in patients with newly diag...

BACKGROUND Asthma medication ratio (AMR) ≥ 0.5 has been shown to predict asthma exacerbations. This study explores the impact of increasing or decreasing inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting beta-agonist (ICS/LABA) use over a 7-year period on achieving an AMR of ≥ 0.5. OBJECTIVES To (a) assess the impact of increasing use of ICS/LABAs on changes in a modified AMR (mAMR) and (b) examine asthma r...

Patients with COPD are frequently prescribed inhaled corticosteroids (ICS); however, it is unclear whether the treatment with ICS might modify responses to inhaled bronchodilators. Two 6-month, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel-group studies of tiotropium 18 microg once daily, compared with salmeterol, 50 microg bid, had been conducted in patients with moderat...

PURPOSE To evaluate the association between post-inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), pneumonia and lung cancer in patients with asthma. METHODS The study samples were collected from the National Health Insurance Database. Asthmatic patients who were first-time users of ICS between 2003 and 2005 were identified as cases. For each case, 4 control individuals were randomly ...