Autumn mite trigger asthma
Posted on April 13, 2008
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As the leaves fall, the dust mite population in your bedroom could well be on the rise. Research from Sydney’s Woolcock Institute of Medical Research shows that dust mite levels can increase 2-3 fold during late autumn, compared with summer levels.
According to National Asthma Council Australia director, Dr Janet Rimmer, a respiratory physician and allergist, that’s bad news for the vast numbers of Aussies with dust-mite triggered allergy or asthma.
She said: “Around 45 per cent of the population have an allergy and of those people, almost 80 per cent react to dust mites.”
“Dust mites are the most common trigger for asthma in Australia and the bedroom is the site of the greatest exposure.”
House dust mites are microscopic creatures that feed off human skin scales. They are mostly found in the home and live in soft furnishings such as beds, bedding, carpets, upholstered furniture, soft toys and clothing.
Dust mites thrive in temperate and humid climates and the research indicates a link between the change of weather and the dust mite population explosion, which appears to occur approximately two months after a damp, humid Autumnal spell.
For people with dust mite triggered allergy or asthma, Dr Rimmer recommends a number of dust mite avoidance measures, which may take time, but are potentially helpful.
Typical control measures include washing sheets and pillow cases weekly in water hotter than 55oC; covering mattress, pillow and quilt with dust mite resistant covers, which must be washed every two months; removing soft toys or hot washing them weekly or freezing them overnight; dusting hard floors and surfaces with a damp or electrostatic cloth; and, cleaning carpets weekly using a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter.
“Dust mites and the allergen they leave behind are extremely hard to eliminate, but people who are strenuously motivated to remove the allergen from their homes do say that it makes a difference.” Dr Rimmer said.
Exercise-induced asthma common
Posted on April 13, 2008
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Exercise-induced asthma is a “very much underdiagnosed” malady, Dr. Max Testa told a caller during Saturday’s Deseret News/Intermountain Healthcare Hotline.”Every month we see people who are training, trying to qualify for a marathon or to climb a mountain. They think they’re not training properly. It turns out to be exercise-induced asthma.”
Testa, a sports medicine specialist at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital, and Carrie Petteys, an exercise physiologist there, fielded calls that ranged from a woman who has young children with allergies and asthma, but no health insurance, to a 62-year-old woman who has no symptoms while she’s exercising, but afterwards feels like she “can’t get the air out” of her lungs.
That’s pretty typical, Testa said. People who have exercise-induced asthma typically feel it either at the beginning or after they’ve stopped exercising. The woman said that an inhaler after cleared up the problem, another clear sign that she’s suffering exercise-induced asthma.
Increasing the warm-up and cool-down times makes a huge difference, they said.
But it’s very important, they told callers, to get an accurate assessment of what’s going on, not only to treat it, but also to make sure it’s not something else.
A high school coach called about two of his female athletes who are short of breath and miserable during their workouts. The likely culprit is a vocal-fold dysfunction, and Testa and Petteys often refer such cases to a speech therapist.It’s most common for exercise-induced asthma to be a problem exhaling adequately, usually after exercise, Petteys said. Vocal fold dysfunction usually feels like a problem inhaling while you’re exercising. That’s assuming, of course, the problem isn’t one of being badly out of shape, which can be remedied by getting in shape.
It’s important to keep exercising — the benefits trump the symptoms, which can be treated. But Testa told one woman, who has several medical problems at the same time, that she should do supervised rehabilitation and gentler exercises to avoid problems. He also recommended gentler exercises that don’t make her fight gravity.
The two also said statistics and norms don’t always work when analyzing someone. An athlete who is performing poorly by his capability may look pretty good compared to a general population, because his baseline for physical activity is so much higher than the norm.
The hotline tackles a different topic each month on the second Saturday
Asthma Camp Set For June 15-20
Posted on April 13, 2008
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It offers activities and education for children with acute asthma.
“We need physicians and school nurses to help us identify the sickest kids, those who will benefit the most from attending asthma camp,” Scoby said. “We want kids whose experience at Texas Asthma Camp will make a real and positive difference in their lives,”
The camp is conducted by University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. The cost is $150. Financial assistance is available through Texas Chest Foundation.
For information, call the Health Science Center at 903-877-7075 or visit the Web site texasasthmacamp.com.
MAP Pharmaceuticals Reports Positive Results From Comparative Pharmacokinetic Trial For Its Pediatric Asthma Product Candidate
Posted on March 26, 2008
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MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAPP) announced that in a pharmacokinetic clinical trial Unit Dose Budesonide (UDB) demonstrated lower systemic drug exposure when compared to the currently marketed conventional nebulized budesonide. UDB is MAP Pharmaceuticals’ proprietary nebulized formulation of budesonide, currently in Phase 3 clinical development, for the potential treatment of pediatric asthma. UDB is designed to be administered more quickly and to provide efficacy at lower doses than conventional nebulized budesonide, which is the current leading treatment for pediatric asthma.
The clinical trial was a randomized, open label, cross-over study evaluating the pharmacokinetic profile of two doses of UDB given twice daily in 32 adults with mild to moderate asthma. A 0.135 mg dose of UDB was compared as an alternative to a 0.25 mg dose of conventional nebulized budesonide given twice daily, and a 0.25 mg dose of UDB was compared as an alternative to a 0.5 mg dose of conventional nebulized budesonide given twice daily.
In this study UDB demonstrated faster times to maximum blood concentrations as compared to conventional nebulized budesonide, and had similar maximum blood concentrations. No serious adverse events were reported in the study and nebulization time for UDB in this adult population was shorter than for the currently marketed conventional nebulized budesonide product. Read more
Combination Asthma Inhalers Lower Risk
Posted on March 22, 2008
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For most people with asthma, inhaled steroids are the treatment of choice, and highly effective in preventing and controlling asthma symptoms. But some people are not able to achieve adequate asthma control even with consistent use of daily (or twice daily) inhaled steroids. This is most common in cases of severe persistent asthma.In these cases, doctors will often prescribe a long acting beta agonist, or bronchodilator, to go with the inhaled steroid. Some inhalers combine these two different types of medication in one canister. It’s obvious that this would be more convenient and easier, and therefore a treatment regimen more likely to be followed than having to remember to take 2 different meds once or twice a day.
But, now, researchers have announced that it is also safer to use a combination inhaler, rather than 2 different inhalers.
Researchers from Kaiser Permanente announced at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology this week that Advair (the only combination drug available at the time the study began) had lower mortality rates than an inhaled steroid and long acting beta agonist given separately. It’s possible this is largely related to how carefully patients followed the prescribed instructions for using each drug.
The study has not yet been published, so findings are preliminary. Also, this was not a random clinical trial, which is considered the most valid type of research. Instead, it was a retrospective analysis of past data, and it did not factor out several possible influencing factors, such as other illnesses and socioeconomic status. Still, it adds to the body of knowledge about asthma medication safety and may springboard future research.
Study Analyzed Long-term Symbicort® Use In Children With Persistent Asthma
Posted on March 18, 2008
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A new study analyzed long-term use of the maintenance combination asthma therapy, SYMBICORT® (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate), in treating persistent asthma in children 6 to 11 years old. The study examined the safety of SYMBICORT in children for 26 weeks and also included efficacy measures. For children previously treated with inhaled corticosteroid, either alone or in combination, the study showed that long-term treatment with SYMBICORT resulted in significantly greater improvements in lung function and reduced healthcare resource utilization, compared with budesonide dry powder inhaler (DPI) alone. In the study, SYMBICORT also had a safety profile similar to its monocomponent, budesonide, which is an approved asthma medication for children. Results were presented today at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting held in Philadelphia, March 14-18, 2008.
“According to the NIH Guidelines, combination therapy is recommended for children whose asthma is not adequately controlled with inhaled corticosteroids alone,” said lead investigator Jeffrey Leflein, MD, Allergy & Immunology Associates of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The study defined resource utilization directly and indirectly. Direct utilization was defined as urgent care center visits due to asthma, unscheduled healthcare provider visits, unscheduled phones calls to physicians and hospitalizations due to serious adverse events. Indirect utilization was defined as days children were unable to participate in activities, days caregivers missed work due to their child’s asthma and caregivers’ days interrupted.
AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) anticipates filing a supplemental new drug application with the Food and Drug Administration for the pediatric indication of SYMBICORT in the first half of 2008.
About the Studies (Abstracts #28 and #597)
Long-term safety was assessed during a 26-week multicenter, randomized, open-label study that evaluated 186 children ages 6 to 11 years old with persistent asthma that were previously treated with inhaled corticosteroid, either alone or in combination. After one week on their usual ICS therapy, 123 patients were randomized to receive treatment with two inhalations twice-daily SYMBICORT (budesonide/formoterol pressurized metered-dose inhaler (pMDI)) 160/4.5 micrograms (?g), and 63 were randomized to receive two inhalations twice-daily budesonide dry powder inhaler (DPI) 160 ?g.
Predose forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) - how much air a person can exhale during a forced breath in the first second of exhalation, which is a measure of airflow and is reduced with airflow obstruction - was measured at randomization (baseline) and weeks 2, 12 and 26. Caregivers reported resource utilization weekly. Safety assessments included adverse events, 24-hour urinary cortisol (nmol/24 h) and physical examination, including change from baseline to the end of treatment in height (cm). Read more
ER asthma visits down as patients learn to manage disease
Posted on March 14, 2008
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There was a time when Kiyoshi Martinez sat on the sidelines.
During recess he’d watch as his classmates conquered the jungle gyms, slid into first base and made goals on the soccer field.
It was a time when the school nurse kept his inhaler on hand, ready to rescue him in case of an emergency. He went to the doctor’s office every day after school to get an allergy shot. All of this just to help him control his asthma.
“Why is this happening to me?” he would ask himself. Read more
Smog rules could push development rural
Posted on March 14, 2008
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The federal government’s new smog standards could push industrial development in Indiana away from its urban areas and into rural counties — or out of the state altogether, an industry official said Thursday.
Environmental activists, however, said the stricter ozone standard announced Wednesday doesn’t go nearly far enough to protect the public from dense, eye-stinging summertime smog that makes it hard for the elderly, children and others to breathe.
Dal asthma test bests spirometry
Posted on March 10, 2008
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A new device cobbled together out of a stereo speaker, some transducers and a breathing tube by scientists at Dalhousie University in Halifax could revolutionize the way we diagnose asthma.
Called a forced oscillation spirometer, the machine measures how resistant or “twitchy” an asthma patient’s airways are, explains Dr Paul Hern¡andez, a Dalhousie respirologist involved in clinical trials of the device, which was developed by Dalhousie biomedical engineer Geoffrey Maksym, PhD. The team has just received a $2 million grant from the Atlantic Innovation Fund to commercialize the device.
“This tool offers new insight into the pathophysiology of asthma and can increase our understanding of asthmatic airways in real time and our detection of asthma,” says Dr Hernandez.
Last August the team published a study in the European Respiratory Journal in which they tested the oscillation spirometer on a group of kids with well controlled disease attending an asthma camp and compared the results to non-asthmatic children. They found that the device was a more sensitive way to diagnose who was asthmatic and who wasn’t, because the “twitchiness” was detected even though the kids’ asthma was well controlled with meds. Dr Hernandez is currently conducting followup studies on the device in adults.
Get Information About Asthma Types
Posted on March 10, 2008
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Asthma is an illness where irritants cause inflammation of the bronchial tubes, as they become very sensitive, and thus making it difficult to breath. Contraction of the muscles around the wind pipe can be a result of this inflammation. The inflammation can also cause excessive mucus in the air passage as well as swelling of the lining may occur if its an airway inflammation.
Asthma is a growing worldwide problem. Asthma is classified in various ways. Traditionally, doctors have categorised asthma into two general groups, Extrinsic (allergic) asthma and Intrinsic (non-allergic) asthma, depending upon the types of stimuli that flare up these attacks. Read more
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