Anti-inflammatory therapy for asthma.

Asthma is now recognized to be a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, involving mast cells, eosinophils, and T lymphocytes. Treatment of asthma should therefore be based on anti-inflammatory agents rather than bronchodilators. Choices include inhaled corticosteroids, which are highly effective in all patients, and cromolyn sodium and nedocromil sodium, which are effective in patients with mild asthma. It is likely that the earlier and more widespread use of anti-inflammatory drugs will reduce the unacceptably high morbidity and mortality of asthma and prevent irreversible chronic airflow obstruction in patients with severe disease.

[1]  T. Fukuda,et al.  Airway hyperresponsiveness, increased intracellular spaces of bronchial epithelium, and increased infiltration of eosinophils and lymphocytes in bronchial mucosa in asthma. , 1992, The American review of respiratory disease.

[2]  S. Lane,et al.  The role of macrophages in the mechanisms of airway inflammation in asthma. , 1992, The American review of respiratory disease.

[3]  A J Wardlaw,et al.  Expression of mRNA for interleukin-5 in mucosal bronchial biopsies from asthma. , 1991, The Journal of clinical investigation.

[4]  S. Albelda.  Endothelial and epithelial cell adhesion molecules. , 1991, American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology.

[5]  P. Barnes,et al.  New concepts in the pathogenesis of bronchial hyperresponsiveness and asthma. , 1989, The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology.

[6]  K. Chung,et al.  Inflammatory mediators and asthma. , 1988, Pharmacological reviews.