The severity of asthma in relation to beta agonist prescribing.

OBJECTS: to investigate the relationship between indices of acute and chronic asthma severity and beta agonist prescribing. METHOD: the severity of asthma was assessed in 120 patients with asthma attending an emergency room. Seventy-seven patients were on salbutamol MDI, 38 on fenoterol MDI and five on different beta agonists. RESULTS: patients prescribed fenoterol MDI had more symptoms of chronic severity than those on salbutamol MDI and were more likely to have had a previous hospital admission. There was no difference in objective measurements of severity on presentation to the emergency room between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: either regular fenoterol MDI use leads to more chronic severe asthma or patients with chronic severe asthma are more likely to have been prescribed fenoterol. Fenoterol use is not associated with delay in presentation with acute asthma.