Dividing Asthma May Improve Treatments

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 13 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Researchers from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center suggest that dividing asthma into four types based on the age of onset and presence or absence of eosinophils can enhance a physician's ability to isolate genetic differences, understand how the disease evolves, and ultimately improve approaches to therapy.

The study found patients classified as having asthma from birth to age 12 (early-onset) experienced greater allergen sensitivity and more allergic symptoms than patients with the disease ages 12 and older (late-onset). Patients classified as having late-onset asthma had poorer lung function than those with early-onset asthma.

In both onset groups, the presence of eosinophils associated with more asthma symptoms and poorer lung function than the absence of those cells.

Eosinophils were most commonly found in patients with late-onset disease while other inflammatory cells were more frequently found in those with early-onset asthma.

From:
http://www.physweekly.com/article.asp?issueid=113&articleid=1177

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