Paul M O'Byrne, J Mark FitzGerald, Eric D Bateman, Peter J Barnes, Jinping Zheng, Per Gustafson, Rosa Lamarca, Margareta Puu, Christina Keen, Vijay K T Alagappan, Helen K Reddel
BACKGROUND: In mild asthma, as-needed budesonide-formoterol reduces long-term exacerbation risk compared with as-needed short-acting β2 -agonist (SABA), with a similar or increased reduction versus maintenance with budesonide plus as-needed SABA, despite a lower budesonide dose. In this post-hoc analysis of the SYmbicort Given as needed in Mild Asthma (SYGMA) 1 study, we investigated the short-term risk of severe exacerbations after a single day with various levels of reliever use. METHODS: SYGMA 1 was a 52-week, double-blind, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial, in which patients aged 12 years or older with mild asthma were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to placebo twice daily plus as-needed terbutaline 0·5 mg, placebo twice daily plus as-needed budesonide-formoterol 200-6 μg, or budesonide 200 μg twice daily plus as-needed terbutaline (ie, budesonide maintenance group)...
February 2021: Lancet Respiratory Medicine