چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background: Exacerbations of bronchial asthma usually occur in the autumn. To our knowledge, however,
the effectiveness of drugs for preventing exacerbations of asthma in the autumn has not been studied previously,
except for leukotriene receptor antagonists and Omalizmab.
Methods: This study compared the prophylactic effectiveness of suplatast tosilate with that of mequitazine in
children with asthma symptoms, which is usually exacerbated in the autumn. The study group comprised 27
children aged 2 to 15 years who required treatment for asthmatic attacks during the past year and tested positive
at least for mite allergen in the preceding autumn. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive either
suplatast or mequitazine. The primary endpoint of this study was the number of days without symptoms during
the 8 weeks of treatment. In addition, the Japanese Pediatric Asthma Control Program (JPAC) scores were
also recorded every 2 weeks in each group.
Results: Overall, 14 patients received suplatast, and 13 received mequitazine for 8 weeks from September
through early October. During follow-up, the number of days without symptoms and the total JPAC scores did
not differ significantly between the groups. However, as compared with weeks 1 to 2 of treatment, the mean
number of days without symptoms during weeks 7 to 8 increased significantly in only the suplatast group (8.6
vs. 11.5 days; p = 0.004).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that short-term additional treatment with suplatast is useful for preventing
asthma symptoms in children with asthma, which is usually exacerbated in the autumn.