Objectives: Many asthmatics take therapy intermittently because of their scarce compliance. It is not known if this is effective in controlling and slowing down the lung function decline in asthma. Our aim was to compare the effect of a regular treatment and an intermittent one on some clinical aspects and on the forced expiratory volume 1 (FEV1) decline in 165 persistent asthmatics with FEV1 > 70% (60 men; age 40.87 +/- 14.05; FEV1 95.03 +/- 13.1%), in a retrospective way over 4 years.
Patients and methods: Eighty-four patients took inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) plus long-acting bronchodilator agents (LABAs) regularly (regular) and 81 patients took ICSs plus LABAs intermittently for short periods when symptoms appeared (intermittent).