Inhaled corticosteroid treatment for asthma.

Increased numbers of goblet cells associated with decrease in the ciliated epithelium occur at an early stage in the patient with asthma. Recent bronchial biopsy studies have demonstrated that these changes may occur even in the mildest asthmatic patient. The protective function of the epithelium is thus compromised and secretion enhanced in early asthma. Anti-inflammatory therapy should be employed at an early stage in the asthmatic patient. Avoidance of allergen is also essential if the source of the inflammation is atopic disease. Inhaled corticosteroids not only reduce bronchial hyperresponsitivity, but also improve the diurnal variation that occurs in lung function in the asthmatic patient. Inhaled corticosteroid therapy is associated with the normalization of the ciliated to goblet cell ratio and a reduction in the inflammatory cell infiltrate, including most notably a reduction in eosinophil within the lamina propria and respiratory epithelium. These changes induced by inhaled corticosteroids are not noted when inhaled beta 2-agonists are employed alone as therapy for asthma. The use of inhaled corticosteroids may thus potentially reverse the pathologic changes that occur even in the early asthmatic patient, whereas utilization of inhaled beta 2-agonists failed to improve histologic abnormalities that occur in early asthma.