Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Change in Allergy Injections Schedule - March 11, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Asthma
From WebMD Health News
Many children with asthma have low blood levels of vitamin D, and the insufficiency seems to place them at risk for more severe disease.
In a study of 99 kids with asthma, 47% had vitamin D insufficiency. Compared with children with normal levels of vitamin D levels, those with vitamin D insufficiency:
- Had poorer lung function
- Had higher levels of immunoglobulin E (IgE), an immune system protein the body makes in response to allergens that tells you the likelihood that you're allergic
- Were more likely to need inhaled and oral steroid medications to reduce airway inflammation and mucus production
- Were more likely to need long-acting beta-agonist drugs that relax muscles in the lung's airways, improving a patient's ability to breathe freely and reducing asthma symptoms
Friday, March 5, 2010
Oral Immunotherapy for Egg Allergies Shows Promise
The investigators enrolled 55 egg-allergic children between the ages of 5 and 18 years and randomized them to receive either a daily dose of egg white solid OIT (n = 40; 62% male; mean age, 7.13 years) or a placebo (n = 15; 60% male; mean age, 7.07 years). All patients underwent initial escalation, build-up, and maintenance (at 2000 mg) for a total of 44 weeks, followed by an oral food challenge.
Results at the end of the study showed that 21 of the 40 children who received the OIT passed the oral food challenge, whereas none of those who received the placebo did.
These results are encouraging and hopefully in the near future, allergists will be able to offer therapeutic options for patients suffering from food allergies. Researchers are also pursuing oral immunotherapy to other foods such as peanuts.
Source: Medscape Medical News
Asthma Severity Remains Stable in Pregnant Women Continuing Their Medication
From Medscape Medical News
March 5, 2010 — Asthma severity during pregnancy is similar to severity in the previous year if women continue to take their prescribed medication but is more severe if they discontinue it, according to the results of a study reported in the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
"Early investigators suggested a rule of thirds: in one third of women, asthma improves during pregnancy; in one third, asthma becomes worse; and in one third it remains the same," write Kathleen Belanger, PhD, from Yale University School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues. "However, assessment of improvement has often been subjective, and exacerbations have been measured by hospitalizations and emergency department visits. No studies have used the more common clinical endpoints of symptoms and medication use to assess exacerbation during pregnancy."
See Abstract
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Food Allergies: Suspect, Test, Avoid
From WebMD.com
March 15, 2006 -- The nation's major allergy organizations have agreed on how best to diagnose and manage food allergies.
The new "practice parameters," from a panel of allergy experts, are a state-of-the-art guide on how to detect and treat food allergy.
Food allergies are common -- and commonly misunderstood by doctors as well as patients, says panel co-chairman Jay M. Portnoy, MD, who is chief of allergy, asthma, and immunology at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and vice president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
"I see patients all the time who go to a doctor, skin-test positive for lots of different foods, and are advised to avoid all of these foods," Portnoy tells WebMD. "It makes their life miserable. And it turns out they are not truly allergic to all these foods after all."
Portnoy's complaint rings true with patient advocate Anne Muñoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN).
"Some parents never suspect food allergies until their child ends up at the emergency room -- where they might be told it is a food allergy, or they might not," Muñoz-Furlong tells WebMD. "Or if the child first has mild symptoms, like eczema, they may not realize it is a food allergy. And then the entire family suffers until a diagnosis is made and the food is eliminated from the diet."
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Panel Critical of FDA's Asthma Drug Ruling
By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News
March 1, 2010 (New Orleans) -- A leading panel of asthma experts today criticized a new FDA ruling that long-acting asthma drugs should be used only for the shortest period of time required to achieve control of asthma symptoms and then discontinued.
The panel agreed with the FDA warning that the long-acting drugs Serevent and Foradil should never be used alone, but rather in combination with other asthma-control medications called inhaled steroids.
But the move to limit use of Serevent and Foradil as well as the combination drugs Advair and Symbicort puts patients at risk of full-blown, deadly asthma attacks, says William Busse, MD, chair of the department of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.
All of the drugs are a member of a class of drugs called long-acting beta agonists (LABAs), which the FDA cautions can provoke a sudden, fatal asthma attack.
"But the risk to a patients from LABAs is very remote," Busse tells WebMD.
The risk of having a deadly attack if you suddenly stop taking the LABA medication once control is achieved is much greater, he says.
Busse was chair of the panel that wrote the asthma bible that most doctors follow -- the 2007 National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Expert Panel Report 3: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma.
"The fact that the [FDA ruling] runs counter to the asthma guidelines without any new information being introduced is of real concern," he says.Read Full Article from WebMD.com
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