Formoterol Turbuhaler® as reliever medication in patients with acute asthma

¹ Royal Melbourne Hospital and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
² Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, Australia
³ Lyell McEwin Health Services, Elizabeth Vale, Australia
⁴ Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Nedlands, Australia
⁵ AstraZeneca, Sydney, Australia
⁶ AstraZeneca R&D, Lund, Sweden

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: abe.rubinfeld{at}mh.org.au.

	Abstract

To compare the efficacy and safety of formoterol versus salbutamol as reliever medication in patients presenting to an emergency department with acute asthma.

A randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel group study in four Australian emergency treatment centres with 78 adult patients (mean baseline FEV₁ 1.83 L; 59% predicted normal [PN]) with acute asthma. Based on the expected dose equivalence of formoterol Turbuhaler® 4.5 µg (delivered dose) and salbutamol pMDI 200 µg (metered dose), patients received formoterol Turbuhaler® 36 µg (delivered) or salbutamol pMDI with spacer 1,600 µg (metered) at 0 and 30 min. FEV₁, PEF and systemic ₂-agonist effects were monitored for 4 h. The primary variable was FEV₁ % PN at 45 min.

At 45 min, mean increases in FEV₁ expressed in % PN were 6.6% and 9.3%, respectively, with a small adjusted mean difference in favour of salbutamol (3.0% [95% CI: -2.0, 8.0]; p=0.24). Transient increases in systemic ₂-agonist effects occurred predominantly with salbutamol, although no significant treatment differences were observed. Eight patients discontinued due to adverse events.

In this study of patients presenting to emergency departments with acute asthma, formoterol Turbuhaler® 36 µg was well tolerated and, as rescue therapy, had an efficacy not different from that of salbutamol pMDI with spacer 1600 µg in the number of patients studied.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				O. Selroos, L. Borgstrom, and J. Ingelf Use of dry powder inhalers in acute exacerbations of asthma and COPD Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease, April 1, 2009; 3(2): 81 - 91. [Abstract] [PDF]

				P. J. Barnes Scientific rationale for using a single inhaler for asthma control Eur. Respir. J., March 1, 2007; 29(3): 587 - 595. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]