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O Eliasson

Publications and source records attributed to O Eliasson.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

A comparison of the effects of bid and qid dosing on compliance with inhaled flunisolide.

Noncompliance with inhaled steroids is a well-recognized problem in asthma therapy. We compared compliance with bid and qid regimens of inhaled flunisolide in 16 asthmatic subjects. Patients were instructed to take four inhalations bid for T1 to establish baseline compliance. During T2, half (group A) continued this dosing regimen, while the other half (group B) switched to two inhalations qid. Group A compliance did not significantly change from T1 to T2. The percentage of days with less than eight inhalations (underuse) for group B, however, increased from 20.2 +/- 40.3 in T1 (bid dosing) to 57.1 +/- 49.6 in T2 (qid dosing) (p less than 0.001). Concomitantly, the number of daily inhalations decreased from 7.9 +/- 2.5 to 6.8 +/- 3.1 (p less than 0.01). Reduced compliance with qid dosing was due in large part to an increase in frequency of six inhalations per day, resulting from tid use. Compliance with inhaled flunisolide, therefore, was worse with qid than bid dosing.

Administration, Inhalation

An evaluation of severity-modulated compliance with q.i.d. dosing of inhaled beclomethasone.

Although the asthmatic subject's compliance with a regimen of inhaled corticosteroids is often poor, it has been suggested this may improve during periods of increased severity. To test this, we measured daily peak expiratory flow rates (PEFRs), asthma symptoms, and the use of an albuterol inhaler over nine weeks period in ten patients with moderately severe asthma. The effect of changes in these severity indices on compliance with a q.i.d. regimen of inhaled beclomethasone was evaluated. The PEFR was measured in the morning before bronchodilator administration, and symptoms were graded on a scale of 4 to 16, while albuterol and beclomethasone inhalations were electronically recorded. Three measures of compliance with the beclomethasone regimen were used: (1) mean daily compliance ([number of inhalations/number of prescribed inhalations] x 100); (2) underuse, ie, the percentage of days with less than the prescribed number of inhalations; and (3) overuse, ie, the percentage of days with greater than the prescribed number of inhalations. Mean daily compliance was 67 +/- 36 percent, while underuse was observed in 69 percent and overuse in 11 percent of the days. Despite clinical exacerbations in six of the ten patients and considerable variation in the severity indices, no significant relationship was found between the change in asthma severity and compliance with the beclomethasone regimen. These findings do not support the concept of severity-modulated compliance with inhaled corticosteroids.

Administration, Inhalation

The effect of sodium meclofenamate in premenstrual asthma: a controlled clinical trial.

We speculated that changes in endogenous prostaglandin synthesis might be responsible for the syndrome of premenstrual asthma (worsening of asthma in relation to menstruation). To test our hypothesis, we compared the effects of sodium meclofenamate, a prostaglandin synthesis inhibitor, and placebo on premenstrual asthma in a 4-month, double-blind, crossover study of 17 women with asthma. Day-by-day evaluation revealed that peak expiratory flow reached a nadir during menstruation on both meclofenamate and placebo therapy and varied inversely with menstrual symptoms and asthma symptoms. Meclofenamate therapy resulted in significant improvement in peak expiratory flow during the early premenstrual period but had no treatment effect on the exacerbation of asthma during the late premenstrual period and early menstruation. The overall improvement in pulmonary function caused by meclofenamate therapy was correlated with the treatment effect on menstrual symptoms. Meclofenamate caused a small, nonsignificant decrease in use of theophylline and oral beta-agonist agents, whereas corticosteroid use increased slightly but not significantly. This study demonstrates the temporal relationship between menstrual symptoms and asthma. The study also demonstrates that inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis does not prevent exacerbation of asthma in relation to menstruation.

Adolescent

Density dependence of maximal expiratory air flow in asthmatics with exacerbation of their disease.

In an effort to evaluate the relationship between the site of air-flow obstruction and rate of improvement with therapy, we studied 20 asthmatics with spirometry, before and after bronchodilator, using air and 80% helium-20% oxygen (He-O2). Studies were obtained on 3 consecutive days after hospital admission and approximately 18 days after discharge. Greater He-O2 response ([Vmax50(He-O2)--Vmax50(air)]/predicted Vmax50) X 100, was associated with: less cigarette consumption (p less than 0.02), lesser frequency of chronic productive cough (p less than 0.02), more symptom-free intervals (p less than 0.02), and greater frequency of allergic rhinitis (p less than 0.03). Patients with greater He-O2 response (Group 1) reached maximal improvement in air flow by Hospital Day 2, whereas those with a lesser He-O2 response (Group 2) continued to improve throughout the observation period. The Group 1 mean peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) improved by 24% of predicted per day to maximum, which was significantly greater (p less than 0.025) than the 11% per day rate of improvement of Group 2. The He-O2 response remained relatively stable throughout the course of the study except for 3 patients who dramatically improved their response with therapy. A highly significant correlation, adjusted for regression to the mean, (r = 0.95, p less than 0.0001) was found between mean baseline percent predicted Vmax50 and the mean He-O2 response. After adjustment for regression to the mean, there was no significant relationship between the degree of prebronchodilator He-O2 response and increase in He-O2 response with bronchodilator.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent

Morbidity in asthma in relation to the menstrual cycle.

After observing three cases of severe recurrent exacerbations of asthma in relation to menstruation, we conducted a survey among women with asthma inquiring about the relationship of asthma symptoms to the menstrual cycle. Of 57 women with asthma, 19 (33%) had significant worsening (p = 0.006) of total pulmonary symptom scores during either the premenstrual period, the menstrual period, or both with maximum increase in dyspnea, wheezing, and chest tightness during the premenstrual period (p = 0.002). The other 38 (66%) women noted no such changes in their asthma. Logistic regression analysis comparing women with and without worsening of their asthma around menstruation revealed that the former group reported significantly more severe wheezing in general (p less than 0.05) and also more severe pulmonary symptoms during the premenstrual period (p less than 0.05). Of the women whose asthma was affected by menses, 13 (68%) had been hospitalized for asthma but only 10 (26%) of the women who were unaffected (p = 0.002). Both dysmenorrhea scores and premenstrual syndrome scores correlated significantly with baseline pulmonary symptom scores in the premenstrual asthma group. It appears that asthma morbidity is affected by the menstrual cycle in a subgroup of women with asthma.

Adolescent

Corticosteroids in COPD. A clinical trial and reassessment of the literature.

A placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over trial was conducted to assess whether 16 men with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) would benefit from orally taken corticosteroids. Two weeks of treatment with 40 mg of prednisone daily did not result in improvement of pulmonary symptoms or function in the group as a whole, although one patient had small improvement in airflow. The baseline spirometric data and beta-agonist responsiveness of the patients in the study were then compared to a reference population consisting of 264 men who fulfilled a criteria for chronic obstruction out of 730 men who comprised a systematic sample drawn from all patients referred for spirometry at three hospitals. Our study subjects and those of five similar trials of corticosteroids in COPD had more severe obstruction than this reference group. Furthermore, the proportion of steroid responders found in each study was inversely related to the baseline FEV1 of the patients examined. It appears that previous studies of corticosteroids in COPD may have overestimated the number of COPD patients who might benefit from corticosteroids, due to a bias resulting from the selection of severely obstructed subjects.

Aged

Serum 13-14-diOH-15-keto-prostaglandin F2 alpha and airway response to meclofenamate and metaproterenol in relation to the menstrual cycle.

In order to evaluate whether adverse reactions to a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agent (NSAIA) were related to variations in prostaglandin levels during the menstrual cycle, we measured 13-14-diOH-15-keto-prostaglandin F2 alpha in serum and the effect on airways of a single dose of 100 mg oral meclofenamate and 1.5 mg inhaled metaproterenol during the early (follicular phase) and late (luteal phase) menstrual cycle. Among 24 women with premenstrual asthma (PMA), four women with regular asthma (REA), and four healthy women, the 13-14-diOH-15-keto-PGF2 alpha averaged 140.9 +/- 68.4 pg/0.1 ml during the follicular phase but only 14.4 +/- 2.2 pg/0.1 ml during the luteal phase (p less than 0.0001). Acute asthma reactions to the meclofenamate occurred during the follicular phase in six women with PMA but were never observed during the luteal phase (p = 0.016). These reactions occurred preferentially in patients on corticosteroids (p = 0.004). Conversely, one patient with PMA had 18% improvement in FEV1 with meclofenamate during the luteal phase. A placebo-controlled, double-blind evaluation of the healthy women and the women with REA revealed a trend toward improvement in FEV1 during the luteal phase (0.15 less than p less than 0.10) but no change during the follicular phase. The effect of metaproterenol did not vary with the menstrual cycle, and there was no interaction between the effects of meclofenamate and those of metaproterenol. It appears that meclofenamate causes adverse effects on pulmonary function in asthmatic women primarily during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. This effect is associated with corticosteroid treatment and may be related to monthly variation in serum 13-14-diOH-15-keto-PGF2 alpha.

Adult

The use of criteria for reversibility and obstruction to define patient groups for bronchodilator trials. Influence of clinical diagnosis, spirometric, and anthropometric variables.

Multiple criteria for obstruction and reversibility are being used at present to define patient populations for bronchodilator studies. In order to establish whether the use of different criteria would result in variation in results, we evaluated 4 criteria for obstruction and found that the outcome of a bronchodilator trial, mean response, will depend on the definition of obstruction used. The obstruction criteria evaluated were: (1) FEV less than lower 95% confidence limit (CL) of predicted, (2) FEV1/FVC% less than lower 95% CL, (3) FEV1 between 500 and 1,500 ml, and (4) FEV1 less than 60% of predicted. Patients selected by criterion (1) had 8.9% FEV1 response, whereas those selected by criterion (3) had 14% FEV1 response. This difference resulted mostly from the difference in the degree of obstruction among the groups as well as the effect of regression to the mean compounded by calculating the results as percent of baseline. Also, it appears the use of obstruction criteria based on the absolute value of the FEV1 or on predicted FEV1 may create an age and height bias for bronchodilator response, this being of minimal clinical importance, though. Finally, we found that the conventional reversibility criterion: 15% improvement of the initial FEV1, could be misleading. This criterion could not be used to define disease, and when it was applied to a patient population it resulted in the selection of the most obstructed subjects, which is a contradiction of the very definition of reversibility.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult

COPD or not COPD.

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