An increased risk of death or near death from asthma was associated with the regular use of inhaled beta 2-agonist bronchodilators, especially fenoterol. Regardless of whether beta-agonists are directly responsible for these adverse effects or are simply a marker for more severe asthma, heavy use of these agents should alert clinicians that it is necessary to reevaluate the patient's condition.

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Risk of venous thromboembolism was slightly increased in users of third generation oral contraceptives compared with users of second generation products.

The association between the use of inhaled beta-agonists and the risk of death and near-death from asthma has previously been reported. It was based on a nested case-control study of 129 cases and 655 control subjects selected from a cohort of 12,301 users of asthma drugs followed during the period 1980 through 1987. In this paper we examine the question of asthma and non-asthma mortality using data from the entire cohort of 12,301 asthmatics. There were 46 asthma and 134 non-asthma deaths in this cohort, for which there were 47,842 person-years of follow-up. The overall rate of asthma death was 9.6 per 10,000 asthmatics per year. This rate varied significantly according to the use of fenoterol, albuterol, or oral corticosteroids in the prior 12 months and the number of asthma hospitalizations in the prior 2 years. The rate decreased significantly, by 0.6 asthma deaths per 10,000 asthmatics per year over the study period, after controlling for the effect of the four other risk factors. It also increased significantly with the use of all beta-agonists, and more so for fenoterol than for albuterol, although this difference was partly explained by the dose inequivalence of the two drugs. Change-point dose-response curves showed that the risk of asthma death began to escalate drastically at about 1.4 canisters (of 20,000 micrograms each) per month of inhaled beta-agonist, the recommended limit. For non-asthma death, the overall rate of 28 deaths per 10,000 asthmatics per year was not related to the use of inhaled beta-agonists.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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