BACKGROUND Asthma guidelines recommend the adoption of allergen avoidance measures (AAM). To do so, patients need to know their own allergies. However, this degree of knowledge has not yet been assessed. The aims of this study were to determine, in allergic asthma patients: i)the degree of knowledge of their own allergic sensitizations; ii)the percentage of those who knew all their allergies an...

Standardization of the solute output from the Wright nebulizer is necessary in nonspecific bronchial challenge to obtain reproducible results. Airflow and driving pressure are known determinants of the output. In an epidemiological study, in which day-to-day variations in room temperature occurred, we found the reproducibility of the output from a Wright nebulizer to be outside the range of acc...

INTRODUCTION Adult patients with diagnosis of asthma remain largely under the care of primary care physicians (general practitioners). Thus, they play an important role in diagnosing and treating this population. The aim of the study was to characterize of adults with asthma remaining under the care of Polish general practitioners (GP) as well as to evaluate the use of diagnostic tools and trea...

We investigated 654 subjects of a small Lombardy (Italy) town between 15 and 64 years of age who were representative of the general population. By clinical examination, the sample included 535 normal subjects (164 normal smokers, 341 normal nonsmokers, 30 normal subjects with acute upper respiratory illness within 30 days before the challenge), 50 with chronic bronchitis, 26 with asthma, and 43...

A new drug, AH 7725, with properties similar to those of disodium cromoglycate (Intal) has the additional feature of being effective when taken by mouth. Six patients with allergic asthma were studied by bronchial challenge tests with antigen. In every one the drug was found to inhibit (either partially or completely) the immediate-type asthmatic response. Late responses were not influenced. Th...

BACKGROUND Rush immunotherapy results obtained in Der PI-sensitive children with asthma and the changes in clinical and immunological parameters were investigated. METHODS We studied 18 patients with Der PI sensitivity. Two groups were randomized: nine patients received RIT and nine patients received conventional immunotherapy (CIT) for three years. The RIT group reached the optimal maintenan...

Pillows are known to contain significant levels of indoor allergens and endotoxin, that are of importance to house dust mite sensitized asthmatics. Buckwheat pillows are commonly used in Korea. We studied the levels of the house dust mite allergen, Der f 1, and endotoxin on new synthetic and buckwheat pillows and their accumulation over three months. Endotoxin levels were significantly higher o...

Three employees from two different detergent companies were investigated for occupational asthma, using skin prick tests, serum specific IgE, and specific bronchial challenge. Two were challenged with lipase and one with cellulase. All three cases had immunological evidence of sensitisation to the detergent enzymes with which they worked. Bronchial challenge in each provoked a reproducible dual...

We have investigated whether the inspiratory flow at which sodium cromoglycate (SCG) is inhaled influences the efficacy of SCG. Seven atopic asthmatic subjects (age 25 +/- 2 yrs) inhaled dry powder SCG from a Spinhaler on separate occasions at three flow rates, maximum (V1), 100 l.min-1 (V2), and 50 l.min-1 (V3), or placebo, according to a double-blind structured study. Thirty minutes after adm...

BACKGROUND Despite decades of positive experience with specific immunotherapy (SIT) in the treatment of asthma, outcomes associated with SIT have not been evaluated. OBJECTIVE This meta-analysis was conducted to compare the effects of SIT plus medical treatment with those of SIT without medical treatment in patients with asthma. METHODS All studies of SIT in patients with asthma published i...