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.
11 Bone Mineral Density in Women with Asthma on Long Term Inhaled Corticosteroid Therapy. Thirty women with asthma on long term ICS, who had bone densitometry data were randomly selected to evaluate the association between BMD and the long ten-n use of ICS at different dose ranges. ICS dose was classified into low, medium and high dose groups based on 1997 National Institutes of Health guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of asthma. All women with decreased BMD were post-menopausal. In conclusion our data indicate that long term use of ICS by post-menopausal women with asthma is associated with increased prevalence of BMD loss in a dose related fashion.