FRIDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the inhaled corticosteroid budesonide is not associated with an increased risk of pneumonia, according to a study contradicting previous research findings in the Aug. 29 special issue of The Lancet focusing on COPD.

Don D. Sin, M.D., of St. Paul's Hospital and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues reviewed seven trials in which 7,042 patients were randomly assigned to receive either inhaled budesonide with or without the long-acting β₂ agonist formoterol, or placebo or formoterol alone (control).

The researchers found no significant difference between the budesonide-treated groups and control groups in the one-year risk of pneumonia as an adverse event (3 versus 3 percent) or as a serous adverse event (1 versus 2 percent), or for time to pneumonia as an adverse event (log-rank test, 0.94). They also found that the two most important predictors of pneumonia were increasing age and reduced forced expiratory volume in one second.

"Future research should clarify the mechanisms by which inhaled corticosteroids contribute to pneumonia, and how the risk is modified by differences in dosing and pharmacokinetics," the authors conclude.

Several researchers reported financial relationships with AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, which are makers of inhaled corticosteroids.

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