ABSTRACT
This chapter consists of a critical review of the two New Zealand case-control studies published in 1989 and 1990, respectively, which showed an association between asthma deaths and the prescription of fenoterol, and draws on published comments on these studies and on relevant other literature that was available up to mid 1990. The results of the two studies are generally consistent. In each, the proportions of cases and controls using oral beta agonists (almost always salbutamol) were virtually identical. Most subjects were prescribed a beta agonist by metered dose inhaler (MDI), and the risk of death was higher in those than in the small number of subjects who did not receive an MDI drug. Thus, the main association between beta agonist use and death was consistent in the two studies, both showing a positive association between death and the use of MDI fenoterol.
