(RxWiki News) How difficult asthma is to control varies case by case. But new research may help one predict the tough cases.
Asthma that is hard to control with standard treatments may have several distinct features, this Children's Hospital of Chicago study of inner-city children found.
Kids with tough-to-control asthma were usually more responsive to bronchodilators than kids with easier cases. They also usually had more nasal inflammation and allergies.
During the study period, children with hard-to-control asthma showed little improvement in their symptoms compared to other children.
“Our study found striking differences in how children with asthma respond to treatment, and these were associated with clinical factors that can be identified from the start,” said lead study author Jacqueline Pongracic, MD, head of the Allergy and Immunology Division at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, in a press release. “Being able to predict whether a child’s asthma will be easy or difficult to control will help us provide a more personalized treatment approach.”
This study looked at 619 children ages 6 to 17 who had asthma and were followed for over the course of a year.
Talk to your child's doctor about how best to manage your child's asthma.
This study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Support for this research came from various sources, including the National Institutes of Health and Department of Health and Human Services, as well as several pharmaceutical companies.
Study authors disclosed many potential conflicts of interest, including ties to pharmaceutical companies.
