Background: Although it is well established that the incidence of bronchial asthma is higher in the athlete population than in the general population, little information exists about the efficacy of treatment of bronchial asthma in the athlete population.
Objectives: We conducted this study with the objective of determining the efficacy of treatment of bronchial asthma in an athlete population living in Niigata Prefecture, Japan.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of bronchial asthma in an athlete population. Athletes diagnosed as having asthma, based on the Global Initiatives for Asthma (GINA) guidelines, who visited the Niigata Institute for Health and Sports Medicine between January 2007 and June 2008 were enrolled in this study. We compared two groups of patients, a group treated with ciclesonide (CIC) alone and another treated with montelukast alone, with the treatment duration lasting at least 3 months in both groups. The CIC or montelukast groups were compared in terms of the clinical symptoms, pulmonary function parameters, and fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO).
Results: There were no significant differences in the sex distribution, age, frequency of symptoms, pulmonary function parameters, or other examination data before treatment between the CIC and montelukast groups. The CIC group tended to show better symptom control and to need fewer changes of treatment than the montelukast group. While improvements of the pulmonary function parameters and FENO values were observed in the CIC group, no significant changes of these parameters were observed in the montelukast group.
Conclusions: These data suggest that CIC offers greater promise for the control of asthma than montelukast in the athlete population, although further investigation is required.