Previous studies have shown that “the gut microbiota differs in composition and diversity during the first months of life in children who later do or do not have allergic disease," but researchers who focused on immunoglobulin A prevalence made a different finding.
The pros identified included the possibility of EMDs improving adherence, that the devices might help motivate patients through creating a sense of independence and accountability, and that the data generated could help in building a trusting relationship between clinician and patient.
Using data from the Inner-City Asthma Consortium, researchers were able to identify the factors that contribute to more than half the variance in asthma severity, including allergic sensitization and, significantly, environmental tobacco smoke.
Only 5-10% of asthma sufferers have "severe" asthma, but account for about 50% of the social cost of the disease. The current focus in research is on finding therapies to treat specific components of the inflammation.
A new article in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology argues that genetic studies of asthma, expected to be game-changers, have “delivered neither meaningful clinical diagnostic tools nor useful insights into disease pathogenesis.”
A study out of the University of Pittsburgh identifies significant comorbidity and negative outcomes in those with insomnia and asthma, and finds that even asthmatics who report no nighttime breathing disturbances still face a predisposition to sleeplessness.
Individuals with atopic asthma were recently found to have a distinctive bronchial bacterial microbiome that not only differs from those without asthma, but between asthmatics with phenotypes more responsive or resistant to inhaled corticosteroids.