RESUMO
The effective treatment of asthma is important in terms of improving the quality of life and decreasing the number of hospital admissions due to acute exacerbations. Parasymphatic activity is increased in patients with asthma. This is one of most important part of airway obstruction which has a great potential for reversibility. The evidence about the synergic interaction between inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), long acting beta-2 agonists (LABA), and long acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA) encourages the use of LAMA in asthma. Tiotropium treatment was found to be successful in patients with recurrent exacerbations in whom asthma was uncontrolled despite treatment with other add on treatments that were recommended at GINA step 4. These findings triggered several clinical studies on fixed dose ICS/LABA/LAMA for asthma treatment. Three studies that have been published recently showed that fixed dose ICS/LABA/LAMA improved the lung functions and decreased the exacerbation rate without increasing the dose of ICS or LABA in asthma. In this review, the mechanisms of action of LAMA in asthma were summarized and possible role of fixed dose ICS/LABA/ LAMA in asthma treatment was discussed under the light of current literature.