Chest
Clinical Investigations: AsthmaSputum Eosinophilia and Maximal Airway Narrowing in Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus Allergic Rhinitis Patients: Only Rhinitis or Rhinitis Plus Mild Asthma?
Section snippets
Subjects and Study Design
We selected 52 nonsmoking D pteronyssinus-allergic patients who consecutively attended our department reporting nonseasonal rhinitis. D pteronyssinus sensitization was established by means of positive skin-prick test results with a standardized extract (ALK-Abelló; Madrid, Spain) and detection of a specific IgE to this allergen in the context of a compatible clinical history. Subjects who had been sensitized to other perennial or seasonal allergens were excluded. Patients underwent clinical and
First Criterion of Grouping: Response to the Asthma Symptom Questionnaire
The 52 mite rhinitis patients were matched according to their positive (n = 30) or negative (n = 22) responses to the questionnaire (Table 1). Groups did not differ in age, sex, allergen sensitization, Der p 1 exposure, or baseline lung function. Sputum induction was safe in every patient. Adequate samples for analysis were obtained in 93% of the AS+ patients and in 68% of the AS− patients. No difference in sputum composition was detected between groups. The results of the Mth-BPT were positive
Discussion
Allergic asthma and rhinitis are related disorders that frequently are associated and show a parallel development.6 Although less frequently than in patients with asthma, the lower airways of rhinitis patients exhibit eosinophilic infiltration17,19 and increased sensitivity to bronchoconstricting agonists,17,20 suggesting that both diseases are manifestations of the same disorder.6 Some authors3 have documented the benefits of the early detection and onset of inhaled steroid therapy in patients
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank Ms. Theresa Hetherington for her review of the English language of this manuscript.
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The complex link between severity of asthma and rhinitis in mite allergic patients
2013, Respiratory MedicineCitation Excerpt :However an evaluation, excluding this subset of patients was performed and the result of the survey did not change (data not shown). Subjective assessment of rhinitis and asthma severity is the most questionable point of our study; a need for more sophisticated tools to investigate this relationship in mite allergic patients with respiratory allergy has been emphasized.31 However our study aim was only to evaluate the relationship between asthma and rhinitis severity with those tools that are currently used in the clinical setting and in real life surveys.8,9,11,27
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This study was supported by a research grant from the Government of Canarias (FUNCIS).