Conditions: Asthma
Keywords: asthma
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Enrollment: 10
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Dr. MacIntyre and his colleagues are studying inhaled medications in asthma. There are two new medications that have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA): levalbuterol and formoterol. Both of these drugs are similar to standard asthma bronchodilator drugs but offer theoretical advantages in terms of fewer side effects. There are also newer devices to deliver these medications into the lungs: breath actuated nebulizers (BANs) and non-static chambers (Aerochamber-max) that can be used with metered dose inhalers (MDIs or "puffers"). The purpose of this study is to deliver these new medications using several different devices and measuring lung function, heart rate, and sensations of breathlessness.

Detailed description:
Patients will be studied on five separate mornings. The duration of the study and frequency of the visits will be solely dependant on the subject availability. Each subject will receive all 5 treatments in the same order.

Arms:
arm 1: 0.5 ml. levalbuterol + 0.5ml saline in a breath actuated nebulizer arm 2: 0.5 ml. levalbuterol + 0.5ml ipratroprium in a breath actuated nebulizer arm 3: levalbuterol metered dose inhaler 2 puffs arm 4: levalbuterol MDI + aerochamber max without pause 2 puffs arm 5: levalbuterol MDI + aerochamber max with 2 second pause 2 puffs

Interventions: intervention 1: levalbuterol intervention 2: saline intervention 3: levalbuterol MDI intervention 4: breath actuated nebulizer intervention 5: aerochamber max intervention 6: ipratroprium
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 0.5 ml. levalbuterol intervention 2: 0.5ml saline intervention 3: None intervention 4: None intervention 5: None intervention 6: None

Protocol document: