Intravenous montelukast may be effective as treatment for acute asthma

583 adults with acute asthma were treated with standard care during a 60-minute screening period.

Patients with FEV(1) lower than 50% predicted were randomly allocated to intravenous montelukast 7 mg or placebo.

Montelukast increased FEV(1) at 60 minutes postdose by 0.32 L (0.10 L more than placebo). However, treatment failure did not differ between groups.

Intravenous montelukast added to standard care in adults with acute asthma produced relief of airway obstruction throughout the 2 hours after administration, with an onset of action as early as 10 minutes.

However, a follow-up study in children did not show a significant difference from placebo (the results and the link to the PubMed abstract will be posted on this website in the near future).

References:

A randomized placebo-controlled study of intravenous montelukast for the treatment of acute asthma. Camargo CA Jr, Gurner DM, Smithline HA, Chapela R, Fabbri LM, Green SA, Malice MP, Legrand C, Dass SB, Knorr BA, Reiss TF. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010 Feb;125(2):374-80.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20159247?dopt=Abstract

Image source: Montelukast, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, public domain.

Updated: 03/28/2010