Efficacy of Cetirizine Combined with Budesonide on Children with Bronchial Asthma and its Effects on Levels of Serum TGF-β₁, MCP-1 and SDF-1

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of cetirizine combined with budesonide(BUN) on treatment and levels of serum transforming growth factor-β₁(TGF-β₁), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1) and stromal-derived factor-1(SDF-1) in children with bronchial asthma. METHODS Ninety four cases of children with acute episode of asthma were randomly and evenly divided into observation group(cetirizine combined with BUN, n=47) and control group(BUN, n=47), and they were treated for 7 d. The treatment effects, clinical symptoms, pulmonary function indexes and levels of serum TGF-β₁, MCP-1 and SDF-1 were compared between the two groups. RESULTS The effective rate of treatment in observation group and control group were 95.74% and 82.98% respectively(P<0.05). The disappearance times of signs of cough, asthmatic symptoms, wheezing and wet rales in observation group were less than those in control group(P<0.05). After treatment, the forced expiratory volume in 1 second(FEV₁), the percentage of FEV₁ in predicted value(FEV₁%) and peak expiratory flow(PEF) were significantly increased in the two groups(P<0.05), and the levels of FEV₁, FEV₁% and PEF in observation group were higher than those in control group(P<0.05). After treatment, the levels of serum TGF-β₁, MCP-1 and SDF-1 were significantly decreased in the two groups(P<0.05), and the levels in observation group were lower than those in control group(P<0.05). CONCLUSION Cetirizine combined with BUN for asthmatic children can effectively reduce the expression levels of serum TGF-β1, MCP-1 and SDF-1, and relieve the respiratory tract inflammation, thereby improving the symptoms and treatment effects.