Asthma often coexists with  gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The effect of proton pump  inhibitors (PPIs) treatment on asthma concomitant with GERD was  inconsistent.  In a recent meta-analysis conducted at the Department  of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Peking Union Medical College  Hospital, Beijing, China, researchers found out that proton pump  inhibitors therapy did not show a statistically significant  improvement on morning peak expiratory flow in asthma patients having  gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, neither in subgroup with  symptomatic gastro-oesophageal reflux disease nor in subgroup with  treatment duration >12 weeks.
The  study is published in the Journal of Respiratory Medicine.
  Zhoude Zheng and colleagues aimed  to assess whether proton pump inhibitors treatment improved morning  peak expiratory flow (mPEF) in asthma patients with  gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.
  Fourteen randomised clinical  trials with a total of 2182 participants were included in the study.  Overall, proton pump inhibitors versus placebo did not affect morning  peak expiratory flow in patients with asthma having  gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (weighted mean difference  8.68 L/min, 95% CI −2.02 to 19.37, p=0.11).   
  Trial sequential analysis (TSA)  further confirmed this finding (TSA adjusted 95% CI −1.03 to  22.25). Subgroups analyses based on the percentage of patients with  symptomatic gastro-oesophageal reflux disease ≥95%, treatment  duration >12 weeks also found no statistically significant benefit  on morning peak expiratory flow.   
  Similarly, analyses of secondary  outcomes (evening PEF, forced expiratory volume in 1 s, asthma  symptoms score, asthma quality of life score and episodes of asthma  exacerbation) did not show significant difference between proton pump  inhibitors and placebo.
  As a result, the authors  concluded that in this meta-analysis, proton pump inhibitors therapy  did not show a statistically significant improvement on morning peak  expiratory flow in asthma patients having gastro-oesophageal reflux  disease, neither in subgroup with symptomatic gastro-oesophageal  reflux disease nor in subgroup with treatment duration >12 weeks.   
  This analysis does not support a  recommendation for proton pump inhibitors therapy as empirical  treatment in asthma patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease,  they further inferred.
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043860
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