Nedocromil sodium in the management of chronic bronchial infection

Abstract

A double-blind parallel group comparative pilot study was carried out in patients with bronchiectasis to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect of nedocromil sodium in chronic bronchial infection. Patients were randomized to either a nedocromil sodium metered dose inhaler, 4 mg, four times daily, or placebo for 12 weeks. Clinical symptoms, lung function tests and sputum characteristics of volume, purulence, leucocyte count, neutrophil chemotactic activity and elastolytic activity were evaluated at baseline, after 4, 8 and 12 weeks of the trial. Patients were withdrawn when they had acute infective exacerbation. There were 13 evaluable patients and results were statistically analysed at 8 weeks due to the limited number of patients remaining in the study at 12 weeks. There was no significant change in any of the parameters in either active or placebo group. Hence, nedocromil sodium has not been found to contribute to the management of stable bronchiectasis in this study and larger studies are required to identify more modest effects.