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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Treatment with ibuprofen can slow the drop in lung function that occurs in children with cystic fibrosis (CF), according to group of researchers from Ohio.
The ability to slow disease progression is important because it is a strong predictor of death in patients with cystic fibrosis, Dr. Michael W. Konstan, from Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland told Reuters Health.
"In the US, only 5 percent of children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis (who) are eligible for treatment with ibuprofen are being prescribed this therapy. These findings should prompt physicians that treat cystic fibrosis patients to reconsider ibuprofen as a treatment option," he added.
Using data from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Patient Registry, Konstan and colleagues compared changes in lung function in 1,365 patients treated with ibuprofen and in 8,960 not treated with this drug.
They found that treatment with ibuprofen was associated with a significant slowing of the decline in lung function.
Treatment with ibuprofen did increase the risk of stomach bleeding, but the annual bleeding rate was still small: 0.37 percent vs. 0.14 percent without ibuprofen, the investigators note in a report in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
"This study, based on the 'real-world' use of ibuprofen, found similar results to a 4-year clinical trial that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine more than 10 years ago," Konstan told Reuters Health. "It is reassuring to see that clinical trial results, which are obtained under very controlled conditions, actually predict clinical practice results," he added.
SOURCE: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, December 2007.
