Cough is a prevalent health problem that negatively affects the quality of life. Acute and chronic infective cough, allergic conditions or bronchial asthma including cough variant asthma are frequently successfully treated with combination of mucolytics, expectorants and bronchodilators. Bronchodilators such as levosalbutamol has the potential to decrease cough sensitivity, enhances the clearance of cough secretions as well as decreases the release of protrusive inflammatory mediators.

The current prospective, cross sectional study was conducted to elucidate the clinical utility and safety of bronchodilatory cough formulations containing levosalbutamol in the treatment of cough. The authors included 40 centers which used levosalbutamol cough formulations across India. A total of 1367 consecutive prescription records involving Levosalbutamol were collected for evaluation. It included adults (21%) and children (79%) with mean age 11.1 yrs, male (60%) and female (40%).

It was observed that bronchodilatory cough formulations including levosalbutamol was frequently prescribed medication for lower respiratory tract infections (69.7%), acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis (AECB) (14.8%), bconchial asthma (8.5%), allergic rhinitis (5%). The most common presenting complaints included productive cough (92%) in these patients. Smoking and allergic rhinitis were found to be chief risk factors involved in adults and children, respectively. Cough severity was analyzed utilizing Fisman scale score (0-4).

The results divulged that mean cough score ameliorated from baseline score of 3 to 0.8 along with significant improvement in associated symptoms of wheeze and sputum. The transient insignificant side effects reported were tremor (1%), palpitation (0.9%), vomiting (0.7%) that did not require treatment withdrawal in most cases.

Thus, the study concluded that bronchodilatory cough formulation containing levosalbutamol can be considered as an efficient therapeutic option for the management of productive chronic cough, primarily due to allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma. In addition, owing to its potential of causing no major side effects, it can be safely used in both adults and children.

Source: Vora A, Krishnaprasad K, Bhargava A. A Cross-sectional Cohort Analyses Assessing Response to Levosalbutamol Bronchodilatory Cough Formulations in Outpatient Community Settings of India: ‘BUS’ analyses. Journal of The Association of Physicians of India. 2016 September. 64. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308119652