PDF
Asthma Care in Canada | Open Access
Montelukast as Add-On Therapy to Inhaled Corticosteroids in the Management of Asthma (The SAS Trial)
J Mark FitzGerald,1 Sylvain Foucart,2 Stephen Coyle,3 John Sampalis,4,5 Denis Haine,5 Eliofotisti Psaradellis,5 and R Andrew McIvor
61Respiratory Division, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2Merck Frosst Canada Limited, Kirkland, Québec, Canada
3Medical Director, Four Rivers Clinics, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
4Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Canada
5JSS Medical Research Inc., Montreal, Quebec, Canada
6Firestone Institute of Respiratory Health, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of montelukast as add-on therapy for asthmatic patients who remain uncontrolled with low, moderate or high doses of inhaled corticosteroid monotherapy.DESIGN: An eight-week, multicentre, open-label, observational study.RESULTS: Of 320 patients enrolled, 288 (90.0%) completed the study. Of patients who had uncontrolled asthma symptoms (Canadian Asthma Consensus Guidelines Update, 2003) but were controlled according to the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ score of less than 1.5), 93.9% maintained asthma control at week 8. Of patients with uncontrolled asthma at baseline for both definitions, 63.5% achieved asthma control by week 8. The mean ± SD ACQ score decreased from 1.13±0.28 to 0.57±0.50 (P<0.001) for controlled patients at baseline and from 2.38±0.73 to 1.03±0.80 (P<0.001) for patients who were uncontrolled at baseline, each representing a clinically significant improvement.CONCLUSION: Montelukast add-on therapy is an effective alternative to inhaled corticosteroid monotherapy.
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
