Asthma treatment

Maker says asthma drug Accolate may damage liver The maker of the asthma drug Accolate is advising patients using it and their doctors to be on the lookout for signs of liver problems, following some reports of adverse reactions. AstraZeneca Canada said in a release yesterday that analysis of safety databases has shown that some patients taking Accolate have experienced serious liver problems. There have been reports of seven patients, none of them in Canada, who died of liver-related reactions after taking the drug, said Health …..

DRUG FOR ASTHMATICS IS TIED TO SYNDROME Doctors should closely watch asthma patients who take the drug Accolate for signs of a rare but sometimes fatal condition called Churg-Strauss syndrome, the government and manufacturer said Wednesday. Churg-Strauss syndrome is a tissue disorder that sometimes strikes adult asthma patients and, if untreated, can destroy organs. Early symptoms are flulike, including fever, muscle aches and weight loss, and some asthmatics experience worsening lung symptoms as pulmonary blood vessels become ….. –

PATIENT’S MEDICATIONS WOULD FILL A PHARMACY DEAR DR. GOTT: Because of a variety of health problems, my doctor has prescribed the following medications: Cozaar, Maxzide, K-Dur, folate, vitamin E, Lodine, Premarin, Propulsid, Prilosec, Accolate, Aerobid, Proventil inhaler, and Pamelor. I feel awful. I’m not surprised. You are taking 13 medicines, all of which have potential side effects. Heaven knows how these powerful drugs are interacting in your body. I believe that your situation represents precisely the problem ….. – May 28, 1997 Asthma drug treats causes, symptoms After a research effort that goes back nearly 40 years, scientists at Harvard University have seen their work developed into a new drug that could help millions of people who suffer from asthma.

K. Frank Austen, a Harvard professor of medicine who has been involved since the research began in 1959, said the new drug, called Accolate, is the first ever developed that treats the causes of asthma and not just the symptoms. “Older drugs relax smooth muscles and open up ….. – February 4, 2000 When ADS RULE the doctor’s office, Patients are self-diagnosing based on Madison Avenue’s pitches Allegra, Claritin, Zyrtec, Zyban, Accolate, Zomig. These once strange-sounding names are now common, thanks to with the stream of advertisements promoting prescription drugs and the Internet offering easy access to information. This can have its good points and bad, physicians say. From patients coming into doctors’ offices and asking for a particular drug by name to being frightened of a drug because of possible — and sometimes scary — side effects, doctors see it