Fig. 3.

Median (IQR) daily salbutamol a and budesonide/formoterol b actuations in the 14 days prior to, and the 14 days following a severe exacerbation in the Standard group. Day 0 represents the initiation of corticosteroid therapy. There were 66 severe exacerbations in the Standard group. For patients with repeat exacerbations, a minimal interval of 28 days between exacerbations was required, to avoid overlap of data within the same participant. Three patients in the Standard group had repeat severe exacerbations occurring within 28 days following the prior exacerbation. In another patient randomised to Standard treatment, there was no recorded data for two severe exacerbations due to use of non-study inhaled medication. Thus, electronic data for 61 severe exacerbations were included in the plots of medication use patterns in the Standard group. For these plots, only one of the included days (2 days prior to severe exacerbation for a patient in the Standard group) met dose dumping criteria (≥100 actuations in a 3 h period)