Use of Antileukotriene Drugs in Treatment of Children with Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

There were examined 65 children with partially controlled and uncontrolled bronchial asthma (BA) in the exacerbation phase at the age of 5-7 years. Acute respiratory viral infections were often complicated by wheezing (49.2%) and pneumonia (16.8%). Unfortunately, most of these episodes were treated using antibacterial therapy despite normal values of the complete blood count and no infiltrative changes in the chest radiography. Children of Group I underwent basic therapy of BA in the form of         inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), patients of Group II received antileukotriene drug – montelukast (Milukante) in addition to basic therapy of BA. When assessing the values of peakflowmetry a peak flow rate was found to be improved in all children (р<0.001), however, in children who additionally received montelukast better parameters of the average daily bronchial patency (ADBP) were observed 77.29±1.17% vs. 72.87±0.73% in Group І (р<0.05). There was a similar tendency when assessing the increase in the ADBP 19.9±1.1% and 23.35±1.18% in Group І and ІІ, respectively. After inpatient treatment, patients were prescribed monotherapy with ICS (Group I) or montelukast (Group II) for 3 months. In children who received montelukast parameters of the ADBP were found to be higher 81.29±1.17% vs. 89.27±1.11% in Group І (р<0.05) and, accordingly, the assessment of general well-being was higher, too. Such differences between groups are explained by the fact that patients preferred taking montelukast to taking ICS.