Overall asthma control achieved with budesonide/formoterol maintenance and reliever therapy for patients on different treatment steps (original) (raw)

Background: Adjusting medication for uncontrolled asthma involves selecting one of several options from the same or a higher treatment step outlined in asthma guidelines. We examined the relative benefit of introducing budesonide/formoterol (BUD/FORM) maintenance and reliever therapy (Symbicort SMART ® Turbuhaler ® ) in patients previously prescribed treatments from Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) Steps 2, 3 or 4. Methods: This is a post hoc analysis of the results of five large clinical trials (>12000 patients) comparing BUD/ FORM maintenance and reliever therapy with other treatments categorised by treatment step at study entry. Both current clinical asthma control during the last week of treatment and exacerbations during the study were examined.