September 13, 2006

Asthma Attacks More Severe In Blacks Than Whites
(Reuters Health)

African Americans who come to the ER for treatment during an asthma attack have more severe flare-ups than do whites with the disease. However, they respond equally well to routine "rescue" treatment, according to findings published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. E. R. McFadden of MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, and colleagues investigated asthma attack severity and the effectiveness of rescue drugs called beta2-agonists in 155 African Americans and 140 whites seen at eight different ERs in the Cleveland area. All of the patients were adults.

McFadden reports that African Americans had lower airflow in their respiratory passages and more serious flare-ups of asthma than whites did.

However, the beta2-agonist "albuterol was equally efficacious in both populations and there was no difference in post-treatment (airflow rates, regardless) of the initial attack intensity," the investigators report. Moreover, there were also no racial differences in the rate of hospital admissions and discharges.

Why African Americans have more severe asthma flare-ups in the ER is unknown, McFadden told Reuters Health. They may wait longer to come to the ER and may use short-acting drug therapy too long to try to control the attack at home, she suggested, or they may "run out of medication and not get prescriptions filled because of economic reasons."

The study has raised a number of issues of racial differences in asthma severity and treatment that warrant further study, the research team says.

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