Clinical practice with regard to management of the adult asthmatic with cromoglycate.

An open clinical long-term trial of cromoglycate (DSCG) involving 80 asthmatics over a period of more than one year showed significant effectiveness of DSCG compared with placebo. It was possible to improve the quality of life for asthmatics and reduce the oral steroids; it was also noted that the patients undergoing DSCG treatment needed less bronchodilator than the placebo group. The strict prescription of 4 inhalations per day was not ordered. Instead, half of the patients in the trial inhaled as regularly as possible and the other half when they felt that it was necessary. The results obtained were as good as those following a strict prescription. In general, extrinsic allergic asthma reacted better to DSCG than intrinsic asthma. What is recommendable above all is to prescribe DSCG prophylactically in pollen asthma during the critical months. Expected allergenic contact or exercise, which usually leads to onset of asthma, are also optimal indications for prophylactic use of DSCG. Failures of DSCG have been unjustly publicized, e.g. when asthma suddenly worsens. With the introduction of beclomethasone the standards of well-being of asthma patients have risen, producing the unjust impression that DSCG therapy helps less dramatically than ten years ago. Too often the well-established specific desensitization is regarded as sufficient in the treatment of asthma.