Low-dose Inhaled Corticosteroid Therapy and Risk of Emergency Department Visits for Asthma

some scrutiny, it is unclear if any given ICS has a truly superior therapeutic index. Yet, one thing is apparent. ICS dose-response curves are fairly flat, and low doses of these drugs should suffice for the vast majority of patients that pediatricians will be treating primarily. Furthermore, children treated with medium or high doses of ICS should have pulmonary function monitoring. FP is a particularly potent ICS, and higher doses delivered to less obstructed—or unobstructed—airways might very well be associated with greater systemic risk than that posed by some other ICS. Finally, although ICS are widely thought to be the most effective controllers used in asthma therapy, it appears that there are roughly equal numbers of nonresponders among persistent asthmatics receiving ICS as there are among such patients receiving montelukast.