Salbutamol or ipratropium bromide: does gender and age influence the response to drugs?

Abstract

Background: Assessment of bronchodilator response is a common practice in respiratory function laboratories. The most commonly used drugs are Salbutamol-S and Ipratropium Bromide-BI.

Aims: Characterize the response to bronchodilators according to gender and disease, age and disease; evaluate the variation of FVC and FEV1 according to the drug used according to gender and age; determine the coefficients of agreement between responses to bronchodilators.

Methods: 141 subjects (43 asthmatics; 98 COPD) underwent 2 PFT’s with a 1 week interval with a different drug. The sample was studied according to gender and age group taking into account the underlying pathology.

Results: In women it was the BI that allowed to characterize as responders in asthma (43.5%) and in COPD (55.0%). In men, it was the S that classified as responders with asthma (43.8%) and COPD (52.4%). No differences were found regarding the variation of FVC and FEV1 (p> 0.05) in both genders regardless of pathology. The analysis of the agreement coefficients was significant in both genders in COPD (0.340 and 0.319). In asthmatics ≤60 years old, the S identified as responders a greater number of individuals (50%) and> 60 years old, both drugs had the same capacity (28.6%). In COPD in individual’s ≤60 years old the BI classified the highest number of responders (60.0%) and> 60 years old was the S (47.2%). Regarding the agreement coefficients, they were significant in both age groups only in COPD (0.416 and 0.273).