More improvement in bronchodilator responsiveness linked to exacerbations in asthma
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Key takeaways:
- Bronchodilator responsiveness over 20% was linked to exacerbations and decreased prebronchodilator FEV1.
- More patients in this group vs. the low responsiveness group used high-dose inhaled corticosteroids.
WASHINGTON — Showing more improvement in bronchodilator responsiveness testing was linked to more exacerbations, according to data presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting.
In a cross-sectional study, Itziar Eusebio, at Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues assessed 44 patients with asthma and lung function improvement in bronchodilator responsiveness testing to find out the relationship between different levels of FEV1 improvement and asthma parameters.
Of the total cohort, 21 patients had positive bronchodilator responsiveness between 12% and 20%, whereas the remaining 23 patients had responsiveness greater than 20%.
Researchers found that age and sex distribution did not significantly differ between the two groups, but the median number of exacerbations within 1 year did, with one exacerbation in the group with higher bronchodilator responsiveness vs. zero in the group with lower responsiveness.
Between the two groups, researchers also observed a significant reduction in mean prebronchodilator FEV1 among patients with higher bronchodilator responsiveness (64.31% vs. 72.9%; P = .04).
In terms of high-dose inhaled corticosteroids, significantly more patients with higher vs. lower bronchodilator responsiveness received this medication (82.6% vs. 47.6%; P = .01).
Allergic rhinitis occurred in 80.9% of those with lower bronchodilator responsiveness, whereas this outcome only occurred in 47.8% of those with higher bronchodilator responsiveness (P = .02), according to researchers.
“Our results suggest that patients with a higher bronchodilator responsiveness present more exacerbations and lower prebronchodilator FEV1 (%) despite most of them ... receiving high-dose inhaled corticosteroids,” Eusebio and colleagues wrote.