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Antifungal Drug May Help Ease Asthma

Antifungal Drug May Help Ease Asthma

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MONDAY, Dec. 29 (HealthDay News) -- An antifungal drug may offer hope for very bad asthma patients who as well as suffer from a sensitivity to confident fungi, a recent British study says.

A twice-daily dose of itraconazole improved runny nose, morning lung function as well as the quality of life of 62% of people with very bad asthma as well as allergic sensitivity to at least one of seven dissimilar ordinary fungi in the double-blind study conducted by The University of Manchester.

However, the remaining patients who took the drug dropped out of the 32-week trial before its completion. Some cited side effects such as nausea, breathlessness as well as muscle weakness.

The findings appear in the earliest January issue of the American Journal of Respiratory as well as Critical Care Medicine.

"This study indicates that fungal allergy is substantial in some patients with very bad asthma, as well as that oral antifungal therapy is worth trying in difficult-to-treat patients. Clearly itraconazole will not suit everyone as well as is not always helpful, but when it is the effect is dramatic," lead investigator David Denning, a professor of medicine as well as health examination mycology at The University of Manchester, said in a news release issued by the journal's publisher. "These findings unfastened the door to a recent means of helping patients with very bad asthma, as well as raise intriguing questions related to fungal allergy as well as asthma."

-- Kevin McKeever

SOURCE: American Thoracic Society, news release, Dec. 29, 2008

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