Abstract
To determine whether inhaled corticosteroids should be prescribed to patients with milder forms of asthma and whether markers of airway inflammation should be considered when making therapy decisions. A PubMed search was performed of the English-language literature published in the preceding 10 years (January 1, 1993, through December 31, 2003) concerning epidemiology, pathophysiology, therapy, and prognosis of mild intermittent asthma, with asthma, mild, and intermittent as indexing terms. All relevant studies including author's expert opinions were selected. Several studies have addressed the question of a possible benefit of maintenance therapy (ie, inhaled steroids) in patients with mild intermittent asthma. Although a diminishing effect on airway inflammation has been widely demonstrated, even in patients with mild disease, the impact of inhaled steroids on the long-term prognosis is much less clear. For patients with mild disease who are long-term inhaled steroid users, alternative therapy strategies, including low-dose inhaled steroids and leukotriene receptor antagonists, have been advocated. Mild intermittent asthma is a disease characterized not only by infrequent symptoms and normal lung function but also by chronic ...Continue Reading
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