The low-dose inhaled corticosteroids are known as ICSs and are considered by the medical profession currently to be the most effective way to control the symptoms of asthma. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition that affects the airways or bronchial tubes taking air to and from the lung. The inhaled steroids reduce the inflammation and also the mucus that builds up in the bronchial tubes.
Medical advice to those whose asthma is stable is that they should consider reducing how often they use controller medication such as ICSs or even stop them altogether. But with no evidence of what the consequences of such action are for patients, the team from the Mayo Clinic undertook research that involved seven randomised controlled trials involving almost 1,000 patients whose asthma was characterised as stable. Of those patients, 532 stopped using ICSs while 508 remained on the treatment over the course of the trials, which ran for a minimum of three months.
The research concluded that those who no longer took the ICSs to relieve their symptoms have a 1 in 3 chance of suffering an exacerbation in their asthma over the next six months while those who kept taking the inhaled corticosteroids only risked a 1 in 6 chance of an exacerbation. Those who stopped the ICSs were therefore more than twice as likely to experience an asthma attack or a significant increase in their symptoms.
The findings were reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology with the team suggesting that the results of their research can be used by physicians and patients to weigh up the risks and benefits of using and stopping low-dose ICSs for those whose asthma is stable.