Efficacy of procaterol combined with inhaled budesonide for treatment of cough-variant asthma

Abstract

Background and objective: Procaterol, a selective, short-acting beta-2 adrenoceptor agonist, is effective in treating ‘classical’ asthma, but its efficacy for coughvariant asthma (CVA) is unknown. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of procaterol combined with budesonide for CVA. Methods: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial in China was conducted. One hundred and fifty-nine patients diagnosed with CVA (aged 18-75 years) were randomly divided into two groups to receive twice daily for 8 weeks, inhaled budesonide 100 μg plus either oral procaterol 25 _g or placebo. Primary and secondary efficacy variables were cough symptom severity scores and Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) life quality scores. Adverse events were also assessed. Results: The budesonide/placebo and budesonide/ procaterol groups contained 80 and 78 participants (one excluded for later diagnosis of eosinophilic bronchitis), respectively, with similar baseline characteristics. Daily cough score declined during treatment in both groups and was lower in the budesonide/ procaterol group at 8 (0.44 vs 0.73) and 10 (0.36 vs 0.69) weeks (P < 0.05). Compared with the budesonide/ placebo group, the proportion of patients with a reduction of 3 points or greater (66% vs 42%) and that of patients scoring 0 points (63% vs 51%) was higher in the budesonide/procaterol group for daily cough scores (P < 0.05). At 8 weeks, LCQ score improvement was superior in the budesonide/procaterol group (38.94 ± 19.24 vs 32.71 ± 18.92; P < 0.05). Conclusion: Procaterol combined with budesonide was well tolerated and effective at improving cough symptoms and quality of life in patients with CVA.