Abstract

The Role of Asthma Control Questionnaire for Diagnosis and Assessment of Asthma Control in Children Over 5 Years Old Treated with Fluticasone Propionate and Montelukast

Purpose: There are many factors that determine the occurrence of asthma, starting with genetic predisposition, host characteristics, and environmental exposure. This makes diagnosing asthma and identifying the severity a problem for pediatricians. Unfortunately, the disease's fundamental mechanism is still not fully understood, yet it includes airway inflammation and airway responsiveness. Since various variables affect the clinical manifestations of asthma, it is seldom viewed as a single illness but rather as a collection of heterogeneous phenotypes that have various causes and prognoses. We compared the two groups treated with prophylaxis: One group with Fluticason propionate (F) and the other with Fluticason Propionate plus Montelukast (F+M), and evaluated the use of Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) for detecting the severity of asthma as well as controlling asthma in children over 5 years old.

Methods: The research is open type, prospective, randomized, comparative, and standardized. It was done as an outpatient procedure in the pediatric clinic. The study involved 65 children, among whom 35 were boys and 30 were girls. Each child had a standard survey filled out in accordance with ISAAC guidelines, and GINA recommendations were used to determine the severity of each child's asthma. After that, the therapy was started and control appointments were made. The children were split into two groups based on the therapy type: The group that received F and the group treated with F+M.

Results: The level of asthma control was evaluated using an Asthma Control Questionnaire-ACQ at each visit for six consecutive months. In the group with F+M, asthma control occurs more quickly and clearly over the course of 6 months: in the third month of treatment, complaints drop to 20%, which results in satisfactory control over asthma symptoms with a further decrease to 1.5% in the sixth month. In contrast, the group with F obtains asthma control later, around the fourth month; by the sixth month, 18.5% of individuals are still receiving treatment.

Conclusions: Prophylactic treatment, which involves long-term inhaler corticosteroid use, is used for medium and severe chronic forms. Unwanted side effects are still a problem and make it difficult to discover alternate long-term therapy options, such as adding Montelukast in place of increasing the dosage of corticosteroids. Adding Montelukast in children with uncontrolled asthma shows earlier improvement compare to those with increased dose of Fluticasone The proper setting of Dg and evaluation of the success of asthma management are made possible by the implementation of the standard ACQ questionnaire.

• PDF