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DISODIUM CROMOGLYCATE IN THE TREATMENT OF SEASONAL AND PERENNIAL ASTHMA
Author(s) -
Ford R. Munro
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1969.tb107256.x
Subject(s) - medicine , asthma , placebo , disodium cromoglycate , hay fever , sodium cromoglycate , inhalation , randomized controlled trial , anesthesia , alternative medicine , pathology
A trial of disodium cromoglycate (“Intal”) was undertaken in 132 asthmatic sufferers. Eighty‐four were classified as suffering from seasonal pollinotic disease caused largely by rye grass pollen (Lolium sp.); they received either active cromoglycate or placebo in a randomized double‐blind trial during the period when they were expected to develop asthma. Also, 48 patients suffering from severe “intrinsic” asthma, with negative skin tests to the common “extrinsic” allergens, received either cromoglycate or placebo therapy in a randomized double‐blind and crossover trial over a six‐week period. The results for the first trial in pollinotic asthma sufferers showed that 79.1% of those patients receiving the active substance did not develop significant asthma during the spring season, compared with 82.9% who did while receiving the placebo. Hay fever symptoms were unaffected in both groups and results were not as good as those obtained with routine hyposensitization therapy. Cromoglycate therapy for intrinsic asthma sufferers appeared to be effective in reducing or controlling asthma in about two‐thirds of cases, but when placebo was substituted most tended to relapse. Patients receiving corticosteroid therapy were able to stop or reduce dosage while receiving cromoglycate therapy, but not while receiving the placebo. Side effects of cromoglycate were minimal, but included pain on inhalation, exacerbations of asthma and nausea. A more complex mode of cromoglycate action than simple interference with reagenic antigen‐antibody reaction is suggested, emphasizing that it should not be used as a blanket therapy for all asthma sufferers without first an adequate investigation into the causes of their disease or a realization that, as in the case of corticosteroids, cromoglycate dependence (with possible long‐term side effects) is likely. The present indications for disodium cromoglycate therapy are outlined.