How to Treat Kids' Hard-to-Control Asthma

March 17, 2010 - What's the next step when a child's regular steroid inhaler
fails to prevent asthma attacks? Different kids do best with different step-up
treatments, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) shows.
The drugs with the best chance of success -- 45% -- are long-acting
beta-agonists (LABAs), the study suggests. But
safety concerns limit the use of these agents, the best known of which are
Serevent and Foradil and the combination products Advair and
Symbicort.
About 30% of kids, the study found, do best either with a
leukotriene-receptor antagonist (LTRA, brands include Accolate, Singulair, and
Zyflo) or by doubling the dose of the child's current inhaled steroid
medication.
"Nearly all the children had a differential response to each step-up
therapy," found University of Wisconsin researcher Robert F. Lemanske Jr., MD,
and colleagues.




The
Anatomy of an Asthma Attack

http://www .webmd.com/asthma/news/20100317/how-to-treat-kids-hard-to-control-asthma?src=RSS_PUBLIC