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Anticholinergic Inhaler Medicines Risky for COPD Patients

by Kathy Jones on May 24 2011 10:54 PM

 Anticholinergic Inhaler Medicines Risky for COPD Patients
Opting for anticholinergic inhaler medicines could prove to be risky for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) with a new study suggesting that the medicines increase the risk of the patients suffering from emergency situations.
Currently two types of treatments are used for COPD, a daily dose of Spiriva prescription medication and salmeterol HFA-MDI inhaler though the later is not approved in the United States.

According to the study, which has been published in the Archives of Internal Medicines; using anticholinergic medicines such as Atrovent and Spiriva increase the risk of acute urinary retention by almost 40 percent.

“The thing is that often people don't associate (the inhaled drugs) with a problem peeing. Not only does the patient not necessarily make that connection, but I think clinicians don't make the connection because there's a belief, not necessarily rightly, that the drugs aren't systemically absorbed”, lead researcher Anne Stephenson said.




Source-Medindia


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