INVESTIGATION CONCERNING THE MOST SUITABLE METHOD OF METERED DOSE INHALER (MDI) OF β-STIMULANT

BREATH HOLDING TIME AND MOUTH GARGLING AFTER INHALATION

Abstract

We examined clinical symptoms and the changes of the MEFV curve under the conditoins of different breath holding time in patients with childhood asthma who inhaled β-stimulant with MDI. A total of 30 subjects with an average age of 11.4 years were studied. As a result, no significant difference was observed between the 3 seconds holding group and the 9 seconds holding group.
In the second trial, we also examined effects of mouth rinsing and gargling after inhalation on changes of clinical symptoms and those of the MEFV curve in asthmatic children in the same manner. 21 subjects with an average age of 11.5 years were studied. The result showed that improvement of pulmonary function was higher in the group without mouth gargling.
These results suggest that instruction for the optimal inhalation of β-stimulant MDI in children is to hold breath for up to 3 seconds between inhalation, and not to rinse and gargle mouth after inhalation.