According to a study published online in Thorax, asthma patients can improve their quality of life and ease persistent asthma symptoms during daytime by using a simple device called Protexo, which filters airborne asthma triggers from the air during sleep.

The device, a temperature controlled laminar airflow treatment (TLA) displaces warmer air containing irritants and allergens, such as house dust mite and pet hairs with a constant, slightly cooled airflow in the patient’s sleeping area.

The device aims to forestall the abnormal immune response that triggers a systemic allergic reaction, such as the typical narrowing of the airway of asthma attacks, by protecting the asthma sufferer from irritants and allergens during sleep.

ShoulderFlex Massager
Protexo displaces irritants and allergens

The findings are based on a study conducted across six European countries, in which researchers assessed 281 non-smokers, either passive or active, aged between 7 to 70 years, who had poorly controlled atopic (allergic) asthma. For one year, 189 patients were given a TLA device (Protexo) to be installed above their bed whilst the remaining participants received dummy devices.

The researchers used a validated score to evaluate the patients’ quality of life before and after the 12-month study period. They also assessed patients’ symptom control, lung capacity, airway inflammation, and biological indicators of a systemic allergic response.

According to the results, researchers observed a significant difference of 14-15% on life quality scores in patients of the Protexo-group compared to those with the dummy device. They also observed a sharper decrease in nitric oxide, an indicator of inflammation, in the Protexo-group, in particular amongst those with more severe asthma. Patients in the Protexo-group also showed a substantially smaller increase in immunoglobulin E (IgE), which is another indicator of persistent and more severe inflammation.

According to the researchers, the highest impact was achieved amongst those patients, whose asthma required the most medication, yet whose symptoms were the most poorly controlled, a group who “represent a significant area of unmet need,” they say.

They explain that although asthma treatment has made advances, the condition continues to remain very distressing for a substantial number of patients. Earlier attempts of filtering or purifying airflow have not been greatly successful.

The researchers suggest:

“The reason that nocturnal TLA is successful where so many other approaches have failed may be the profound reduction in inhaled aeroallergen exposure, which this treatment achieves.”

They highlight other research, which indicates that night time allergen exposure has the greatest impact on symptom severity, which could potentially be due to changes in circulating hormone levels and immune responsiveness prompted by the body’s internal clock (circadian rhythms).

Written by Petra Rattue