Pretreatment of exercise-induced asthma in children using disodium cromoglycate and fenoterol inhalation powder.

The effect of pretreatment with inhalation powder containing fenoterol, sodium cromoglycate, fenoterol plus sodium cromoglycate and placebo, in the prevention of exercise-induced asthma was compared in a randomized, double-blind, cross-over investigation including 17 asthmatic children with exercise-induced asthma. Six minutes of treadmill running was carried out in a climate chamber 30 minutes after pretreatment on the four test days. The post-exercise fall in PEF after pretreatment with fenoterol was 7%, with sodium cromoglycate 20%, with fenoterol plus sodium cromoglycate 6% and after placebo 27%. Both sodium cromoglycate and fenoterol provided protection against exercise-induced asthma (p less than 0.05 and p less than 0.001). Fenoterol gave significantly better protection than sodium cromoglycate (p less than 0.001), and it is concluded that the treatment of choice for the prevention of exercise-induced asthma is the inhalation of a beta 2-agonist.