EDITORIAL

Environmental allergen exposure, sensitisation and asthma

Environmental allergen exposure, sensitisation and asthma: from whole populations to individuals at risk

A Custovic, A Simpson

North West Lung Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester M23 9LT, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor A Custovic
North West Lung Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital, Southmoor Road, Manchester M23 9LT, UK; a.custovic@man.ac.uk

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To prevent asthma and allergies we need to design interventions appropriate for individual susceptibilities, taking account of both genes and the environment

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Keywords: asthma; atopy; skin prick test; allergen; children

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Sensitisation to inhalant allergens remains a major risk factor for asthma,¹ but the size of the effect is hotly debated.^2,3 Several cross sectional studies have suggested a simple dose-response relationship between dust mite allergen exposure and specific sensitisation, both within communities^4–7 and between communities exposed to differing levels of mite allergens.⁸ The threshold concentration of 2 µg Group 1 mite allergen per gram of dust for developing mite sensitisation in children at high risk has been suggested, but a much higher cut off level of 80 µg/g appeared significant in low risk children.⁴ For other allergens the relationship between exposure and sensitisation is less well defined. Several studies in the US inner city areas reported that children are more likely to become sensitised to cockroach with increasing cockroach allergen exposure,⁹ and that high exposure to mouse allergen appears to be associated with an increased . . . [Full text of this article]

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