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JACI Highlights - April 2008
Busse, et al. - START study 5-year follow-up: effectiveness of early intervention with budesonide in mild persistent asthma
William W Busse, MD, Soren Pedersen, MD, Romain A Pauwels, MD, MD, Wan C Tan, MD, Yu-Zhi Chen, MD, Carl Johan Lamm, PhD, Paul M O’Byrne, MD, on behalf of the START Investigators Group
Asthma is a serious and often hard-to-manage disease. Even people who have a mild form can experience considerable disease-related distress and be at risk for death. The U.S. Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma recommend inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) for these patients whose asthma is persistent in order to achieve disease control, decreased number of flare-ups, and improved quality of life. The recently completed Inhaled Steroid Treatment As Regular Therapy in Early Asthma (START) study was conducted to determine the long-term effectiveness of early ICS intervention in asthmatics with mild persistent asthma of less than two years’ duration. In an upcoming issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, William Busse, MD, FAAAAI, and colleagues discuss the results of their study. They report that the START data collected in studying more than 5000 asthma patients over 5 years support the US Guidelines recommending daily use of ICS. In both adults and children with persistent mild asthma, the use of the ICS budesonide early in the course of the disease significantly improved asthma control, reduced the occurrence of asthma-related emergency and hospital care, and lowered the need for supplemental asthma medications.
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