Are Lung Disease Patients Using Inhaled Corticosteroid Budesonide At Increased Risk Of Pneumonia?
An article in this week’s COPD special issue of The Lancet reports that patients using the inhaled corticosteroid budesonide to treat Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are not at increased risk of pneumonia. In addition, the drug is safe to use in these patients. Those conclusions are contrary to other research findings. Inhaled corticosteroids are prescribed with and without beta-antagonists. They ease the symptoms and improve the quality of life for patients with COPD. But the latest studies have suggested that inhaled corticosteroids increase the risk of pneumonia, mostly in patients receiving high doses. However, these studies have been criticized for their limitations as well as their incapacity to adjust for potential factors such as age and lung function. This is due to a lack in patient data. Furthermore, they focused on just one inhaled corticosteroid, fluticasone. These studies may not have accounted for possible differences between steroid compounds and their diff
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