Comparison of Infection Risks Between Various Inhaled and Intranasal Corticosteroids: A Pharmacovigilance Analysis Based on the FAERS Database

Ying Lan,1 Die Hu,1 Shijing Huang,1 Qing Ma,1 Li Chen,2,3 Min Xu,1 Qin He1 1Department of Pharmacy, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Jiaotong University, The Third People’s Hospital of Chengdu, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610031, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Leioa, Spain; 3Department of Pharmacy and Evidence-Based Pharmacy Center, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Ying Lan; Li Chen, Email lanying0212@126.com; chenl_hxey@scu.edu.cnPurpose: This study conducted a pharmacovigilance analysis based on the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database to compare the infection risk of inhaled or nasal Beclomethasone, Fluticasone, Budesonide, Ciclesonide, Mometasone, and Triamcinolone Acetonide.Methods: We used proportional imbalance analysis to evaluate the correlation between ICS /INCs and infection events. The data was extracted from the FAERS database from April 2015 to September 2023. Further analysis was conducted on the clinical characteristics, site of infection, and pathogenic bacteria of ICS and INCs infection adverse events (AEs). We used bubble charts to display their top 5 infection adverse events.Results: We analyzed 21,837 reports of infection AEs related to ICS and INCs, with an average age of 62.12 years. Among them, 61.14% of infection reports were related to females. One-third of infections reported to occur in the lower respiratory tract with Fluticasone, Budesonide, Ciclesonidec, and Mometasone; over 40% of infections reported by Triamcinolone Acetonide were eye infections; the rate of oral infections caused by Beclomethasone were 7.39%. The reported rates of fungal and viral infections caused by beclomethasone were 21.15% and 19.2%, respectively. The mycobacterial infections caused by Budesonide and Ciclesonidec account for 3.29% and 2.03%, respectively. Bubble plots showed that the IC