| Short JA et al, 2000, UK | 70 children aged 6–15 years with a diagnosis of asthma, recruited from a hospital respiratory clinic or at presentation for day case surgery. | Clinical trial | Change in PEFR or FEV1 at 10, 20, and 30 minutes after diclofenac | No patient showed decrease >15% in PEFR or FEV1 | Uncontrolled, no healthy volunteers to compare with specific population. No sample size analysis; sample size of 70 seems small. |
| All patients given 1–1.5 mg/kg orally diclofenac after baseline spirometry and after filling a questionnaire detailing the severity of their asthma | | | | 15% reduction in PEFR or FEV1 considered significant but no explanation offered as to why this figure was chosen |
| Lesko SM et al, 2002, UK | 1879 febrile children (aged 6 months to 12 years) receiving asthma medications randomised to receive either paracetamol 12 mg/kg, ibuprofen 5 mg/kg or ibuprofen 10 mg/kg | Prospective randomised double-blind controlled trial | Hospitalisation rates for asthma over four weeks. Outpatient visits for asthma over four weeks | Relative risk for hospitilisation in ibuprofen group of 0.63 (95% confidence intervals 0.25 to 1.6) 18 admitted. | Original study was not designed to look at these outcomes. No objective measure of pulmonary function—follow up by case note review and parental questionnaire. Wide confidence intervals for first outcome. No power calculations. No details of randomisation process |
| | Relative risk in ibuprofen group 0.56 (95% confidence intervals 0.34 to 0.95) 69 patients |