Objective: Present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of high doses of inhaled steroid fluticasone in comparison with oral steroid prednisone in adult patients suffering from moderate asthma exacerbations.

Materials and Methods: A total of 60 Patients of either sex, aged between 28 and 56 with moderate asthma exacerbations were included in the study. All the patients were randomized in two study Groups. Group A included 30 patients, Group B also contains 30 patients. Group A patients received fluticasone via a metered-dose inhaler and spacer 16 puffs (4,000 μg/day) and Patients in Group B receive one pill prednisone 30 mg/day. All the patients undergone Spirometry and CBC before treatment and after 2, 6 and 24 hour of treatment.

Result: Symptoms clearly improved in all the patients in both the study groups after 24 hours. There were no any differences recorded between the both study groups in peak expiratory flow or forced expiratory flow in one second, which improved progressively but then delayed slightly after 24 hours. Eosinophil counts were also improved. The patients improve faster with fluticasone treatment than with prednisone, but effect was same after 24 hours.

Conclusion: both treatments improved symptoms, airway obstruction and inflammation, and CBC at 24 hour. Prednisone and fluticasone reduced blood and sputum eosinophil counts, shows anti inflammatory effect of fluticasone are exerted locally.

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Dr Ashish Ranjan

Tutor, Department of Pharmacology, Sri Krishna Medical College, Muzaffarpur, India