Leukotriene Receptor Antagonists

00:01 Next, we want to talk about the leukotriene antagonists. Now these drugs are not as effective as inhaled steroids.

00:07 Remember the steroids have a multimodal activity whereas leukotriene antagonists are actually fairly specific.

00:14 They are not recommended for acute asthmatic events.

00:17 They are very very effective in exercise induced bronchospasm and bronchoconstriction.

00:23 And they can be used in antigen induced bronchospasm. They can also be used in aspirin allergy.

00:31 Remember that in aspirin allergy, eicosanoid production is directed towards the leukotrienes so LTAs are very very active at that point.

00:41 Aspirin induced bronchospasm is not commonly seen and you may not see very many patients with it, however it is something that shows up on exams every now and then so it is a disease that I want you to be aware of.

00:55 So typically, the exam question will talk about a patient being put on aspirin and then developing asthma symptoms.

01:01 So keep your eye open for that.

01:04 Okay. These are the names of the agents that are in the LTA category.

01:12 Let's move on to toxicity. Generally the toxicity is quite low with the LTAs.

01:18 Churg-Stauss vasculitis is also a quite rare complication of this medication.

01:18 And you can sometimes get an occasional elevation of liver enzymes. This is more common with zileuton.

01:24 The receptor blockers cause less elevation than zileuton and that should be noted.