Egans Fundamentals of Respiratory Care - Essay Example

The use of beta-blockers has adverse effects such as nausea, diarrhea, hypertension, hallucinations, cold extremities, and fatigue. The other reasons that may have caused the patient's symptoms include the mixing of beta-agonists with alpha or beta-antagonist therapy which leads to orthostatic hypotension. Edema is another symptom that can be associated with carvedilol therapy.

Sadly enough, the use of beta-agonists as a blocking agent for asthma may lead to the adverse effect of worsening asthma. This especially occurs in older patients. The worsening of asthma leads to bronchospasm and decreases the response to bronchodilators. The above answers, therefore, show that these symptoms caused by the use of beta-agonists may be caused by mixing with other drugs (Wilkins, Stoller, & Kacmarek, 2009). These drugs include epinephrine and anesthesia. When Beta-agonists are administered alongside methylxanthines, it may lead to lesions of myocardial necrosis and an amplified case of cardiac arrhythmias. Beta2-specific agonists may also lead to adverse cardiovascular effects when it is used clinically. The interaction of Beta-agonists with methylxanthines may also lead to an interaction that increases or lessens the effectiveness of the drugs and thus increase the risk to the patient.

The reason why patients are supposed to use two inhalers is for adjunctive therapy. This means treatment is used in conjunction with another to increase the chances of curing the disease. Adjunctive therapies also increase the efficacy of the first treatment. When anticholinergic such as ipratropium bromide is used alongside beta-agonists, it produces a clinically modest improvement in lung function for asthma patients. This treatment is however only done once and one of its advantages is that it has a prolonged onset of action (Platts-Mills, 1999).

Magnesium sulfate can modestly improve pulmonary function in patients with asthma when combined with beta-agonists and corticosteroids. This is because magnesium causes bronchial smooth muscles to relax and this improves pulmonary function during acute asthma. Heliox may also be used as an adjuvant and it is a mixture of helium and oxygen. This is because heliox improves the delivery and deposition of albuterol, which is a beta-agonist. Leukotriene antagonists improve lung function and reduce the need for short-acting beta-agonists in long-term asthma treatments. Finally, inhaled anesthetics can be used as an adjuvant for beta-agonists. This is commonly done on patients suffering from asthma that is unresponsive to maximal conventional therapy. Read More