In this Issue February 2005

NAC Satellite Broadcast March 30

Asthma and Combination Therapy: Getting the Balance Right

Conference Diary 2005

Asthma and Combination Therapy:
Getting the Balance Right

Satellite Broadcast, March 30 2005

The advent of the long-acting bronchodilator medications has provided better symptom control for people with asthma already on maximum doses of inhaled corticosteroids. Combination therapy has been very useful for reducing breakthrough symptoms, particularly at night.

However, anecdotal evidence and reports exist of the prescribing of unnecessarily high doses of combination medication, and of lack of regular review of doses and efficacy.

The National Asthma Council (NAC) is examining the clinical indications for prescribing combination therapy, starting dose, adherence and quality of life issues in the satellite broadcast “Asthma and Combination Therapy: Getting the Balance Right” on Wednesday 30 March, 2005.

The panel of presenters for the NAC include:

Dr Kerry Hancock, General Practitioner, Member of the NAC GP Asthma Group, Happy Valley SA.
Associate Professor Peter van Asperen, Paediatric Respiratory Physician, Dept of Respiratory Medicine, The Children's Hospital, Westmead NSW.
Associate Professor Jo Douglass, Clinical Allergist, Immunologist and Adult Respiratory Physician, Dept of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, The Alfred Hospital, Prahran VIC.
Mr Peter Holder, Community Pharmacist, Hughes ACT, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia representative on NAC Board of Directors and member of the NAC Pharmacists' Asthma Group.

and will be chaired by:

Dr Norman Swan, Presenter of the Health Report on ABC Radio National.

This program will be invaluable to doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other health workers involved in the management of people with asthma.

Importantly, following the original broadcast date, the program will be available for viewing online from the Rural Health Education Foundation website.

The NAC has produced a number of asthma programs for the Rural Health Education Foundation including:

Asthma 3+ Visit Plan: A New Initiative
One year on: The Asthma 3+ Visit Plan
New Directions in Paediatric Asthma Management

Videos of the NAC programs are also available for sale from the Rural Health Education Foundation.

For more information and links to view programs online go to
Audiovisual Resources NAC Asthma Programs with Rural Health Education Foundation
(http://www.nationalasthma.org.au/resources/video/video_rhef.html)

Broadcast Details

“Asthma and Combination Therapy: Getting the Balance Right” will be broadcast live on Channel 4 of the Rural Health Education Foundation satellite network on

Wednesday 30 March 2005 at:
8.00pm in ACT, NSW, QLD, VIC & TAS.
7.30pm in SA & NT.
6.00pm in WA (and repeated on channel 23 at 8.00pm that night in WA).

The broadcast will be repeated on Channel 23 on

Friday 1 April 2005 at:
12.30pm in ACT, NSW, QLD, VIC & TAS.
12 noon in SA & NT.
10.30am in WA.

Audiovisual Resources

The National Asthma Council has recently added a link to an online educational video about asthma titled "What's Asthma All About?". The video may be accessed through the Audiovisual Resources area.

"What's Asthma All About?" was produced in the USA by Neomedicus, an independent medical education company, and has three parts:

Part 1 - how the lungs work
Part 2 - what happens during an asthma attack, and
Part 3 - how asthma is treated.

Some of the terms used to describe medications in the program are different from terms used in Australia. For example reliever medicine is called "quick relief medicine" and preventer medicine is called long-term control medicine. Nevertheless it is a useful patient and carer resource to aid in the understanding of asthma.

Go to "What's Asthma All About?"
(http://www.whatsasthma.org)

Useful Resources

For all the NAC video resources please go to
Audiovisual Resources
(http://www.nationalasthma.org.au/facts.html#avr)

Women, Asthma Severity and BMI

Woman With the spotlight on the growing obesity problem among Australians, it is worthwhile noting a recent report about the association between body mass index (BMI), and asthma severity according to sex.

The study from the Epidemiological Study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma in France reviewed 366 adults aged 16 years or older with asthma¹.

Results showed that asthma severity increased with BMI, which is the ratio of weight to height, among women but not among men.

Even after adjusting the data for age, smoking status and difficulty breathing due to obesity, the association between BMI and asthma severity in women remained significant.

For the women who experienced menarche at an earlier age, there was a stronger association with asthma severity and the researchers noted that earlier studies have reported a decreased incidence of asthma at menopause as well as variation in visits to emergency departments according to menstrual cycle.

The French study concluded “Findings support the hypothesis of hormonal factors involved in the severity of asthma.”

Last year a Norwegian study found that having a larger waist measurement (the "apple" shape) appears to be a greater risk for developing asthma than just having a high BMI in both males and females².

References

1. Varraso R, Siroux V, Maccario J, Pin I, Kauffmann F. Asthma severity is associated with body mass index and early menarche in women. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2005 Feb 15;171(4):334-9.

2. Kronander UNUN, Falkenberg M, Zetterström O. Prevalence and incidence of asthma related to waist circumference and BMI in a Swedish community sample. Respir Med 2004;98:1109-1116.

Research Funding Opportunities

The National Asthma Council would be pleased to list funding opportunities that may be available for asthma research. Submit brief details for consideration by email to editor@nationalasthma.com.au.

Conference Diary 2005

Submit brief conference/meeting details to the National Asthma Council for possible posting in our Conference Diary by email to editor@nationalasthma.com.au.

2005 Annual Scientific Meeting The Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand Perth Convention Exhibition Centre 18 - 23 March 2005 TSANZ Annual Scientific Meeting 2005 (http://www.thoracic.org.au/asm2005.html)
2005 Annual Scientific Meeting Australian & New Zealand Society of Respiratory Science Perth Convention Exhibition Centre 18 - 21 March 2005 ANZSRS Annual Scientific Meeting 2005 (http://www.anzsrs.org.au/asm2005.html)
The American Thoracic Society San Diego Convention Center San Diego, USA 20 - 25 May, 2005 ATS 2005 (http://conference.thoracic.org/ic/ic2005/welcomeletter.jsp)
16th Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) Annual Scientific Meeting Queenstown, New Zealand 31 August - 4 September 2005 ASCIA Annual Scientific Meeting (http://www.allergy.org.au)