COMPARISON OF A NEW MULTIDOSE POWDER INHALER (DISKUS(R) ACCUHALER(R))AND THE TURBUHALER(R) REGARDING PREFERENCE AND EASE OF USE/

Many patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (CO PD) use their inhaler ineffectively. Several studies revealed that inh aler-specific design features contributed significantly to the failure rate, which clearly demonstrates the need for developing more ''foolp roof'' inhalers. This study compared ease of use and patient preferenc e of the Diskus(R)/Accuhaler(R) (DA) with the Turbuhaler(R) (TH). Fift y patients with asthma or COPD aged 15 years and older were included i n a randomized, crossover comparison of DA with TH regarding patient p reference and ease of use. All had to be naive to DA and TH, but curre ntly had to be using inhaled medication with another device. Inhalatio n technique was assessed using inhaler-specific checklists and patient s had to state a preference for DA or TH regarding various aspects, as well as overall preference. With DA 46 patients (92%) made no errors regarding essential inhalation maneuvers, compared to 37 patients (74% ) using TH (p = 0.023) This difference is exclusively caused by not lo ading the TH properly. When patients were asked which inhaler they wou ld prefer, 17 wanted the DA, 25 the TH, and 8 did not state a preferen ce. The difference was not significant. TH was favored over DA regardi ng factors related to size and the number of available dosages. The co unting mechanism of the DA was preferred over the TH. It seems that pa tients have a clear, although not statistically significant, preferenc e for TH, but with the DA fewer patients make crucial errors.