Therapeutic regimes for acute bronchial asthma.

No uniform guidelines currently exist for the initial drug therapy of asthma or for the criteria to assess efficacy of initial therapy. A study with 71 subjects aged between 15 and 40 years was conducted to compare the usefulness of three commonly used asthma treatment regimes, viz subcutaneous adrenaline, nebulised salbutamol and intravenous aminophylline. Parameters used to monitor response were pulse rate (PR), respiratory rate (RR), Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) and Patient's Subjective Assessment Scale (PSAS). All patients in the three treatment groups were comparable at pre-treatment, except for the Salbutamol group which appeared to have asthma of a milder severity based on PSAS scores alone. Following treatment, improvements were noted in Peak Flow Rate and PSAS. These improvements were greatest in those groups treated with salbutamol and adrenaline (p = 0.04 for PEFR and 0.01 for PSAS). Salbutamol treated patients also had significant improvements in Respiratory Rate (p < 0.05). The results were not conclusive as to whether adrenaline or salbutamol was the superior drug. Salbutamol and adrenaline are preferred to aminophylline in the initial treatment of acute bronchial asthma.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes