Most doctors tell asthma patients to stick to a regimen when taking medicine that helps control this disease. Asthma is a chronic and sometimes life-threatening lung disease that affects people around the world. There is no cure, but there are treatments. And now, global treatment guidelines for asthma could change as a result of a study led by a researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Most adults who have mild or moderate asthma are told to use their inhalers twice daily, even if they don't have symptoms. The medicine in those compressed-air inhalers are corticosteroids, which open a person's airways and decrease mucus so it's easier to breathe. Inhaled corticosteroids are the most common and the most effective form of therapy for asthma sufferers.
In an asthma attack, the airways of the lungs become inflamed and swollen. That can be triggered by a wide range of factors, some genetic, some environmental. Dust, air pollution or smoke can set off an asthma attack. Falling autumn leaves and other seasonal changes that put fine debris in the air can also trigger an attack.
Frank Grizzaffi knows this routine well. “There was a regime that I was supposed to follow, it was two puffs in the morning and two puffs in the evening,” Grizzaffi said.
That was before Grizzaffi participated in a study that involved ten academic centers and more than 300 adults with mild to moderate asthma.
Doctors evaluated the patients and determined the lowest possible dose of medication that would control their asthma. Dr. William Calhoun led the study.
“The amount of corticosteroid that a patient received during the trial was dependent upon the amount of symptoms they had. When they had fewer symptoms they got less steroid when they had more symptoms they got more steroid,” Calhoun said.
After adjusting medication, doctors looked at three different ways of treating the patients.
One group received their adjusted dose of steroids and took them as usual. Another group had their steroid levels adjusted after taking sophisticated breath tests for asthma and a third group was told to use inhalers only when their symptoms flared up.
What the researchers found was that this last group did just as well as the other two. The major difference was the last group used only half as much medication.
“The symptoms-based arm (group) resulted in a reduced use of inhaled corticosteroids, a 50 percent reduction. It also resulted in a reduction in exacerbation in the autumn, a time when exacerbation are typically high and it also resulted in a reduction in absenteeism from school or work,” Calhoun said.
Under his doctor's care, Frank Grizzaffi no longer follows his old regimen. “I’ll take one puff in the morning and that usually takes care of it the rest of the day. I feel great, I feel really good,” Grizzaffi said.
Dr. Calhoun advises patients with mild to moderate asthma to check with their doctors to see if this strategy might work for them. The study was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
GRE数学12个方面全面复习
GRE数学冲刺聚焦难点+解决对策
GRE数学复习5大注意事项
GRE考试数学词汇记忆:P类
新GRE考试数学词汇记忆(C类)
GRE数学165分是不是很低?
GRE数学词汇大全:分数和小数
GRE数学常见问题+备考方法介绍
GRE数学例题解析:统计学
GRE数学例题:数据解释题型(4)
GRE考试数学词汇记忆:G H
GRE数学例题:数据解释题型(3)
GRE数学词汇大全:代数式、方程和不等式
GRE数学几何常27个考题练习
GRE数学考点:Factoring(x2-y2)
GRE数学考点举例分析:Distributive Law
GRE考试数学词汇记忆(T-V类)
GRE数学例题:数据解释题型(6)
GRE数学例题:数据解释题型(10)
GRE数学例题:数据解释题型(9)
GRE数学考试疑难问题解答
GRE数学复习方法5则
GRE数学考试要点示例:算数
GRE数学考试问题与对策
GRE数学考试重要考点知识
GRE数学备考谨防七大误区
GRE数学考试十个易错题
GRE数学多少分算高分?
GRE数学题型变化解析
GRE数学:备考方法+注意事项
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |