Medication study

Treatment alternatives for asthma are always under study. A recent report said that asthma sufferers may be able to cut their use of inhaled corticosteroids and still prevent attacks by using a combination drug or a once-a-day pill, which may pose fewer long-term risks.

In the American Lung Association study, appearing in the May 17 New England Journal of Medicine, a single inhaled dose of the combination drug Advair worked as well as two doses of the steroid fluticasone (Flovent).

For some patients, the combo drug can reduce asthma attacks and discomfort they may encounter if they skip doses of the steroids because of side effects, said Dr. Eliana Mendes, a researcher at the University of Miami medical school who worked on the study.

"The combination might be better if patients don't like steroids," Dr. Mendes said. "But it's not right for everyone." She said asthmatics taking steroids alone could consider taking the combo drug, but not if they don't need the airway-widening component of the drug. The study authors suggested that patients could try the combo or the pill and switch back to steroids if they don't work.

New center at Children's

Future advances in fighting asthma in children may come from a new Pediatric Environmental Medicine Center in Pittsburgh. The Heinz Foundation recently approved a grant of $5 million to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to create the center.

The program will be housed at the $575 million, green-certified hospital under construction in Lawrenceville

The center will focus first on developing new approaches for the prevention and treatment of asthma due to its prevalence in minority and medically under-served communities, but also in response to recent reports identifying Pittsburgh as second from the bottom in air quality among American cities.

But the Environmental Medicine Center also will have the broader goal of making consideration of environmental links to health problems standard in any medical setting.