Clinical efficacy of montelukast sodium combined with budesonide or combined with loratadine in treating children with cough variant asthma and influence on inflammatory factors in the serum

Clinical efficacy of montelukast sodium combined with budesonide or combined with loratadine in children with cough variant asthma was investigated. A retrospective analysis of the medical records of 72 children with cough variant asthma who were treated in Xuzhou Children's Hospital, Xuzhou Medical University from April 2015 to August 2017 was performed and the 72 child patients were divided into two groups: 35 children were treated with montelukast sodium combined with budesonide in Group A, and 37 children were treated with montelukast sodium combined with loratadine in Group B. The clinical efficacy of the two groups was evaluated according to the lung function indexes [forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), ratio of the forced expiratory volume in the first second to the forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC), the peak expiratory flow (PEF)], the inflammation biomarkers [tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-4 (IL-4)], the level of eosinophil granulocyte, and the level of IgE at three time-points: before treatment, the 4th week after treatment, and the 12th week after treatment as well as adverse reactions, recurrence of symptoms, and treatment compliance were recorded. After treatment, the levels of FEV1, FEV1/FVC, PEF, TNF-α and IL-4, eosinophil granulocyte and IgE in the two groups were significantly improved (P<0.05). The treatment compliance of Group A was significantly lower than that of Group B (P<0.05). In conclusion, the method of montelukast sodium combined with budesonide or loratadine are both worthy of clinical promotion because they have equivalent efficacy in the treatment of cough variant asthma to effectively improve the lung function and inflammatory response in patients and both bring less adverse reactions and lower recurrence rate.