Time to Rethink our Scientific methodology: Long-acting Beta-Agonists With and Without Inhaled Corticosteroids and Catastrophic Asthma Events

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Many saw this coming … long-acting beta-2-agonists causing an increased mortality only when not combined with cortisones did not make sense. Myself and others voice this oxymoron. We really need to rethink how we think.

This meta-analysis induced 12 studies. The conclusion is as follows:

pooled data show that the use of long-acting β-agonists, with and without concomitant inhaled corticosteroids, was associated with a significant increase in the risk of asthma-related intubations and deaths. The magnitude of risk was, in fact, higher for trials with controlled concomitant corticosteroid use (OR 8.2) than for trials with no corticosteroid use at all (OR 2.2)

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Long-acting Beta-Agonists with and without Inhaled Corticosteroids and Catastrophic Asthma Events