Where do long acting beta 2 agonists and leukotriene antagonists fit into asthma therapy?
I use the following statistics to give parents a guide to their child’s asthma severity. • Of 100 children who have asthma, approximately 70 percent do well on as necessary bronchodilator alone. • Of the 30 percent that need to go onto the next step, which is the addition of regular inhaled steroids, the vast majority does well on the safe doses indicated above. Approximately 10 percent do not. This makes that child a small number. • Usually if they are in this last group, then alternate diagnoses should be considered. If asthma is the diagnoses, the additive therapies should be considered. There may be a role in some for trying to reduce the inhaled steroid dose in an adequately controlled child by adding the add-on therapy. Currently there is no clear benefit that can be attributed to either the long acting beta agonist, or leukotriene inhibitor in children. This is different in adults. I believe that therapy should be individualized. Therapy should be assessed by history, physical,
