Leukotriene Antagonists as First-Line or Add-on Asthma-Controller Therapy

Abstract

D Price, SD Musgrave, L Shepstone. N Engl J Med. 2011;364(18):1695–1707 To evaluate the real-world efficacy of leukotriene-receptor antagonists (LTRAs) for the treatment of asthma by comparing LTRAs with both inhaled glucocorticoids for first-line therapy and long-acting β2 agonists (LABAs) for add-on therapy. Patients aged 12 to 80 years were considered eligible if they had a Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (MiniAQLQ) score of ≤6 or an Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) score of ≥1. Trials were conducted at 53 primary care sites in the United Kingdom. Patients were randomly assigned to an LTRA ( n = 148) or inhaled glucocorticoid ( n = 158) in the first-line therapy trial and an LTRA ( n = 170) or …