Advances in pediatric asthma in 2013: Coordinating asthma care

Abstract

Last year’s Advances in Pediatric Asthma: Moving Toward Asthma Prevention concluded that: “We are well on our way to creating a pathway around wellness in asthma care and also to utilize new tools to predict the risk for asthma and take steps to not only prevent asthma exacerbations but also to prevent the early manifestations of the disease and thus prevent its evolution to severe asthma.” This year’s summary will focus on recent advances in pediatric asthma on pre- and postnatal factors altering the natural history of asthma, assessment of asthma control, and new insights regarding potential therapeutic targets for altering the course of asthma in children as indicated in Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology publications in 2013 and early 2014. Recent reports continue to shed light on methods to understand factors that influence the course of asthma, methods to assess and communicate levels of control, and new targets for intervention as well as new immunomodulators. It will now be important to carefully assess risk factors for the development of asthma as well as the risk for asthma exacerbations and to improve the way we communicate this information in the health care system. This will allow parents, primary care physicians, specialists and provider systems to more effectively intervene in altering the course of asthma and to further reduce asthma morbidity and mortality.

Trends in racial disparities for asthma outcomes among children 0 to 17 years, 2001-2010

“…The racial disparity in asthma prevalence increased in the early 2000s, and there are few broad, effective interventions to prevent asthma from developing. Although new research is identifying diverse areas to design primary prevention efforts,(24) and the Federal Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Asthma Disparities included as one of the four main strategies: “accelerate efforts to identify and test interventions that may prevent the onset of asthma among ethnic and racial and minority children,”(10) most existing asthma prevention interventions are designed to decrease severity and improve control among those with asthma. Examination of ARRs may provide a more specific perspective of group differences in the effectiveness of those interventions than do PBRs.…”

Imperatorin inhibits allergic airway inflammatory reaction and mucin secretion in ovalbumin-induced asthmatic rats

“…In recent years, allergic asthma with an incidence rate of 4.3 % in the world has become a common disease affecting the normal life of millions of children and adults [1,2]. It is estimated that asthma causes over 300,000 deaths in the whole world every year [1][2][3].…”

“…It is estimated that asthma causes over 300,000 deaths in the whole world every year [1][2][3]. Asthma is a chronic disease with complex pathology and characterized by serious airway inflammatory reactions, excessive phlegm and shortness of breath, etc.…”

The Clinical Efficacy of Sublingual Allergen-Specific Immunotherapy in Children Aged 3-5 Years

“…[5][6][7]. Thus, there arises the need to directly influence the degree of patient sensitization, which is already quite a complicated task.…”