Many asthmatic patients have significant nasal problems and proper management requires treatment of both the upper and the lower airway disease. Abstract 9 shows that a pharmacist can improve the management of a chronic condition like asthma in an HMO setting. Abstract 10 shows the benefit of an asthma education program. Abstract 11 indicates that long-term use of inhaled corticosteroids is not totally free of risk. Post-menopausal women, already risk for osteoporosis, may when on steroids get loss of bone mineral density.
Risk is related to dose.
7 Efficacy and Safety of Using an Aerochamber with Inhaled Flunisolide. Corticosteroids administered through metered-dose inhalers are commonly used in the treatment of asthma. Problems sometimes associated with this delivery system include difficulty coordinating inspiration of the MDT, oropharyngeal deposition, and poor lower respiratory tract penetration. At the end of the 6-week treatment period, all flunisolide groups were significantly superior to placebo with no significant differences in efficacy between the flunisolide MDT and flunisolide MDT with Aerochamber group. The cortisol response to ACTH stimulation was not affected by flunisolide.