The faculty of pharmacy discussed the master’s degree thesis, “Comparison between the effectiveness of medium dose inhaled corticosteroid against a combination of low dose inhaled corticosteroid and montelukast on asthma, control, quality of life, and lab biomarkers among Iraqi children with asthma” by Rawaa Moaid Jabbar and the supervisor, Lecturer Dr. Ali Lateef Jasim in the clinical pharmacy department. The thesis aimed to compare the effects of a medium-dose inhaled corticosteroid alone versus a low dose inhaled corticosteroid combined with oral Montelukast on quality of life and inflammatory biomarkers of persistent asthma in a sample of pediatric patients. The concept of the thesis was a prospective natural study that was conducted at the Central Teaching Hospital for Pediatrics in Baghdad to assess two interchangeable treatment regimens for asthmatic children. The specialized physician performed clinical evaluations to confirm the diagnosis and stage of asthma. The Arabic version of the child version of the asthma control test (C-ACT) was utilized in this study to evaluate the level of control of pediatric asthma. In addition, the children’s health survey for asthma CHSA-child version was used in this study to estimate the quality of life of enrolled children. The physician was responsible for ordering periodic blood tests for follow-up. At the same time, the researcher utilized the gathered blood samples for laboratory investigations. The research included 63 patients ranging in age from 7 to 11 years, with a slight male preponderance .First group patients used medium dose inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) alone regularly plus salbutamol inhaler on need, and included 30 patients, and second group patients used low dose (ICS) plus oral motelukast regularly and salbutamol inhaler on need, and included 33 patients. The Follow-up period was eight weeks. Compared to baseline levels, the study groups had considerably higher quality of life scores at the first follow-up visit, P <0.05. After that, the two groups’ scores were non-significantly higher at the second follow-up visit compared to the first follow-up visit P >0.05. Both groups significantly decreased inflammatory biomarkers at the first follow-up visit P <0.05. The second follow-up visit revealed further decrease in both groups. Recommendations: Questionnaires are a flexible and relatively inexpensive method, but biomarkers are considered more accurate, depending on the results of biomarkers: the first treatment regimen, which consists of medium-dose ICS alone, showed a more noticeable decrease in inflammatory biomarkers and was considered superior to the second regimen, which consists of low-dose ICS plus oral montelukast.
