Asthma and allergy. What is the connection?
Although asthma is a multi-factorial disorder, allergy (immediate hypersensitivity) is the most frequent and important factor in initiating airway inflammation in young people and is relevant in 94 per cent of asthmatics with an onset before the age of 30. After the age of 60, it is a factor in 30 per cent of asthmatics. Allergy to the mite, pollens and moulds has been shown to be a major risk factor for: development of asthma; chronic persistent asthma; acute attacks of asthma; and respiratory arrests due to asthma. All asthmatics must be investigated for the presence of allergy. Assessment on the basis of history is not accurate enough. Allergy tests are cheap and easily carried out. The demonstration of allergy opens up therapeutic strategies that are otherwise inappropriate. The simplest and most rational strategy is allergen avoidance. If carried out correctly, it is effective. Immunotherapy is an option in specifically and carefully selected cases. Anti-allergy measures should be seen as an adjunct, not a replacement, to traditional drug therapy. The anti-allergy strategies are largely preventive and are a logical component of asthma treatment in those asthmatics with evidence of immediate hypersensitivity. The widely used regimen of bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory agents should be continued with, but is obviously not having the desired impact on morbidity and mortality rates. Rational intervention in asthma should combine the two therapeutic approaches.
Czarny
D
D
Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Melbourne.
D000328:Adult; D000485:Allergens; D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D004391:Dust; D006801:Humans; D008925:Mites / Q000276:immunology
D000485:Allergens; D004391:Dust