Asthma Inhalants Don't Help Smokers
06/23/99
The inhaled steroids that enable asthma patients to breathe easier won't do much to help people with lung disease from years of smoking.
Doctors had hypothesized that inhaled steroids might help such people because, like asthma patients, they suffer shortness of breath. However, two studies in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine found steroids to be of little help. The two studeis were conducted separately by Niewoehner and colleagues at 25 VA medical centers and by Dr. Romain A. Pauwels of University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium, and colleagues.