Findings from a first-of-its-kind virtual trial in pulmonary medicine, conducted at Rutgers and many other institutions, suggest adding an inhaled corticosteroid to rescue therapy could sharply reduce the danger of severe attacks for millions of people with mild asthma. The phase III study, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Thoracic Society meeting, tested Airsupra, a fixed-dose inhaler that combines the anti-inflammatory steroid budesonide with the muscle relaxant albuterol. (Albuterol alone is currently the standard rescue therapy after asthma attacks.)
Researchers randomly assigned 2,421 trial patients to use either this combination therapy or albuterol alone after asthma attacks and found that 5.1% of Airsupra users and 9.1% of albuterol-only users suffered the sort of severe exacerbation that required hospitalization or other immediate medical care.
“That’s a big reduction that could greatly increase quality-of-life for people with mild asthma,” said Reynold Panettieri, an investigator involved in the study and vice chancellor for translational medicine and science at Rutgers. “It could also produce cost savings by avoiding hospital visits and eliminating the need for many patients to take daily treatments.” The fully remote trial was the first of its kind in pulmonary medicine. Participants signed up online, received inhalers by courier and met investigators via telehealth appointments up to a year to save travel time and costs. To read the full story.