Bronchial Thermoplasty May Allow Patients With Severe Asthma

Bronchial Thermoplasty May Allow Patients With Severe Asthma To Be Weaned Off Of LABAs. Medscape (11/23, Lowry) reported, "Bronchial thermoplasty, a technique that uses radiofrequency energy to reduce excessive airway smooth muscle mass, which in turn improves control of asthma symptoms, may allow patients with severe asthma to be weaned off of long-acting β-agonists (LABAs)." In fact, "data from the Asthma Intervention Research (AIR) trial," which was previously published in the New England Journal of Medicine, "showed that patients with moderate or severe asthma who were treated with the novel technique showed improvement in symptoms and quality-of-life scores and in pulmonary function tests. Patients also used less medication, particularly inhaled corticosteroids and LABAs