Newswise — People with severe or difficult to treat asthma are more likely to suffer from an allergic form of the disease according to data presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) in Boston.
In an effort to better understand the natural history of the disease, TENOR, a 3-year a multi center cohort study including 2,985 patients, assessed the frequency of skin testing and characterized the difference between subjects with positive and negative test results. The study was conducted by Tmirah Haselkorn, Ph.D., South San Francisco, and colleagues.
Of the subject population, 85.8 percent were skin tested in the past, and of those tested, 93.5 percent were positive. Patients positive for skin allergies (n=2,396) were more likely to be triggered by aeroallergens compared to those who tested negative (n=165). The study compared other parameters, such as baseline immunoglobin E levels (a component of the inflammation reaction linked to the pathogenesis of asthma), which were three times higher in than patients negative for skin allergy (104.6 IU/ml compared to 32.4 IU/ml). The age of disease onset was about ten years earlier on average for the group that tested positive compared to those who tested negative, 21.6 vs 33, respectively. Positive patients were also were about twice as likely to suffer from allergic rhinitis or be triggered by pollen, animals, dust or mold.
In general, those patients who were never tested (n=424) demonstrated values closer to the positive skin test group, suggesting that the majority of those not tested would have been positive, if administered a test. The study enforces that the routine implementation of allergic evaluation may be of benefit in severe asthmatics.
The ACAAI is a professional medical organization, headquartered in Arlington Heights, Ill., comprising 4,700 qualified allergists-immunologists and related health care professionals. The College is dedicated to the clinical practice of allergy, asthma and immunology through education and research to promote the highest quality of patient care.
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