The majority of asthma tricks are considered mediocre

According to the findings presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the majority of asthmatic patients were underutilized, whether or not they used an emergency inhaler or an inhaler. proportioner.

"According to patient information recommendations and leaflets, it takes more than 30 seconds between inhalations to get adequate treatment. [metered dose inhaler] use that includes agitation of the canister, complete expiration before inhalation, slow inhalation and breath retention after use, William Anderson, MD, Assistant professor of pediatric allergies and co-director of the Multidisciplinary Asthma Clinic of the University of Colorado's School of Medicine, his colleagues also wrote.

The researchers collected data on 7,558 asthmatic patients over the age of 4 using controller and / or rescue inhalers with an electronic drug treatment monitor, which passively collected the date and time used. The time period between the first two actuations was labeled as acceptable (more than 30 seconds), fair (15 to 30 seconds or less) or poor (less than 15 seconds) in patient days with two actuations within 120 seconds .

Anderson and colleagues found that 6,616 patients had used the emergency inhaler for 120,882 days and 3,220 patients had used the inhaler control in 157,492 days. The median interquartile interval between the actuations was 9 seconds. In addition, 16% of the triggers were acceptable, 17% passable and 67% poor. The results were almost identical between rescue inhalers and MDIs.

"This study demonstrates that most patients have inadequate intervals between actuators of metered dose inhalers. Electronic drug monitors were useful for detecting an inadequate inhalation technique by examining the interval between actuations as a determinant, "wrote Anderson and his colleagues. "This information can be used to inform patients and providers of the need to instruct inhalation techniques to improve treatment." – by Janel Miller

Reference:

Anderson W et al. Frequency of improper inhalation technique identified by the moment of activation of electronic drug monitor (EMM). Presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; November 15 to 19, 2018; Seattle.

Disclosures: Please refer to the summary book of the meeting for the relevant financial information of the authors.