The drug of choice for the treatment of occasional acute symptoms of asthma is an inhaled beta adrenergic agonist, such as salbutamol. The most frequent adverse reactions to salbutamol include nervousness, headache, tremor, tiredness and light-headedness [1]. The following report describes a patient with asthma from childhood, who developed creatine phosphokinase elevation associated with sever...

Treatment with nebulised salbutamol or a mixture of salbutamol and ipratropium was given to 138 children. Length of hospital stay and number of nebulised doses required did not differ. In severe asthma response was greater with salbutamol alone. In mild asthma response was greater with combined treatment.

BACKGROUND The relative efficacies of aminophylline and salbutamol in severe acute childhood asthma are currently unclear. A single bolus of salbutamol was compared with a continuous aminophylline infusion in children with severe asthma in a randomised double blind study. METHODS Children aged 1-16 years with acute severe asthma were enrolled if they showed little improvement with three nebul...

Background: Intravenous salbutamol (albuterol) reduces lung water in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Experimental data show that it also reduces pulmonary neutrophil accumulation or activation and inflammation in ARDS. Aim: To investigate the effects of salbutamol on neutrophil function. Methods: The in vitro effects of salbutamol on neutrophil function were determ...

BACKGROUND Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are frequently malnourished and have increased resting energy expenditure (REE). An increase in the work of breathing is generally considered to be the main cause of this hypermetabolism, but other factors may also be implicated. Bronchodilators may decrease the work of breathing by reducing airway obstruction, but beta 2 adr...

BACKGROUND There is controversy as to the relative safety of fenoterol and salbutamol. No differences have been found in the relative cardiac beta 1/beta 2 receptor activity of inhaled fenoterol and salbutamol in normal subjects. These initial findings have been extended by comparing the respective potencies of equivalent doses by weight of fenoterol and salbutamol in asthmatic subjects, in ter...

Ten male asthmatic volunteers each inhaled two puffs (200 micrograms) of salbutamol on two separate days 30 minutes after double blind oral administration of either 20 mg nifedipine or identical placebo. FEV1 was recorded before and at intervals for four hours after inhalation of salbutamol. Overall the FEV1 was significantly greater during the four hour period after premedication with nifedipi...

The haemodynamic effects of a continuous intravenous infusion of salbutamol (15 to 30 microgram/min) and nitroprusside (50 to 100 microgram/min) were compared in 9 patients after cardiac surgical operations. The mean falls in left atrial pressure and systemic vascular resistance were similar with the two drugs but salbutamol caused a greater increase in heart rate, maximum acceleration of aorti...

Administration of salbutamol, a beta2-adrenoreceptor agonist, is associated with several metabolic consequences including disturbances of carbohydrate, lipid, and potassium homeostasis.5 Although the importance of these effects during therapeutic use of the drug is not clear, severe hypokalaemia has been reported after salbutamol poisoning.2 As evidence suggests that the metabolic effects are d...