BOSTON – People with severe or difficult to treat asthma are more likely to suffer from an allergic form of the disease, according to data presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) in Boston.

In an effort to better understand the natural history of asthma, TENOR, a 3-year multi-center cohort study including 2,985 patients, assessed the frequency of positive allergy skin tests and characterized the difference between subjects with positive and negative test results. The study was conducted by Tmirah Haselkorn, Ph.D., South San Francisco, Calif., and colleagues.

Of the 2,985-subject population, 85.8 percent were skin tested in the past, and of those tested, 93.5 percent were positive. Patients with positive skin tests (2,396) were more likely to have asthma that was triggered by aeroallergens compared to those who tested negative (165). The study found that other parameters, such as baseline immunoglobin E levels (a component of the immune reaction linked to the pathogenesis of asthma), were three times higher in patients with a positive skin test (104.6 IU/ml compared to 32.4 IU/ml). The age of disease onset was about 10 years earlier on average for the group that tested positive compared to those who tested negative (21.6 versus 33, respectively). Patients with positive tests also were about twice as likely to suffer from allergic rhinitis or have symptoms triggered by pollen, animals, dust or mold.

In general, patients who were never tested (424) demonstrated values closer to the positive skin test group, suggesting that the majority of those not tested would have been positive, if administered a test. The study concluded that the routine use of allergy evaluation may be of benefit in severe asthmatics.

The ACAAI is a professional medical organization, headquartered in Arlington Heights, Ill., comprising nearly 5,000 qualified allergists-immunologists and related health care professionals. The College is dedicated to the clinical practice of allergy, asthma and immunology through education and research to promote the highest quality of patient care.