Airway effects of salmeterol in healthy individuals

✍ Scribed by Anna Bergendal; Åke Johansson; Björn Bake; Jan Lötvall; Bengt-Eric Skoogh; Claes-Göran Löfdahl

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 518 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-0600
• DOI: 10.1006/pulp.1995.1038

✦ Synopsis

The long-acting/~z-agonist salmeterol has been shown in several in vitro studies to produce non-~-mediated relaxant effects. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether these effects have any relevance in humans in vivo. Thirteen healthy individuals were studied in a randomized, double-blind, cross-over study on five separate days. The subjects were pre-treated orally with either propranolol 400 mg in order to block /~-adrenoceptor mediated effects or placebo. Two hours after drug intake, three increasing doses of salmeterol (25+50+100pg), salbutamol (100+200+400pg) or placebo were given from matched meter dose inhalers at 1-h intervals between doses. Specific airway conductance (sGAW) was measured in a body plethysmograph at the beginning of the experiment and 30 and 60 min after each inhaled dose of the ~-agonists. Salmeterol and salbutamol produced the same maximal increase in sGAW and had the same area under the dose-response curves. Pre-treatment with propranolol totally inhibited the effect of both drugs. In conclusion, salmeterol at clinically used doses did not produce any non-t-mediated hronchodilating effect in normal individuals, measured as sGAw. Salmeterol and salbutamol showed the same efficacy but salmeterol was four times more potent than salbutamol.