IgE in childhood asthma: relevance of demographic characteristics and polysensitisation

Abstract

In childhood allergic asthma, total and HDM-specific sIgE levels are tightly linked to markers of allergic inflammation but not to pulmonary functions. These relationships are weakly affected by age but not by sex or by the presence of multiple sensitisations.

Nocturnal temperature controlled laminar airflow for treating atopic asthma: a randomised controlled trial

“…The lesser increase in cat allergen-specific IgE raises the intriguing possibility that nocturnal exposure control may lead to longer-term downregulation of allergic immune responses which has not previously been reported. Given the close relationship between allergen exposure, IgE sensitisation and airway inflammation, these data suggest that nocturnal TLA may work through exclusion of aeroallergens from the breathing zone 18 19. We did not find any effect of TLA treatment on measures of lung function such as FEV 1 and PEF, and this is consistent with previous studies which showed that avoidance of aeroallergens can have beneficial effects on asthma symptoms and measures of airway inflammation without affecting lung function 4 7.…”

“…Moreover the treatment limited rises in some aeroallergen-specific IgE levels, which have a close relationship with severity and persistence of asthma 18 19 24. Nocturnal TLA may be a treatment option for patients with uncontrolled atopic asthma despite high treatment intensity, where guidelines recommend stepping up treatment 10.…”

Agreement of specific IgE and skin prick test in an unselected cohort of two-year-old children

“…Our findings confirm that total IgE was more closely linked to atopy, than to clinical symptoms of allergy [20]. Total IgE was a poor screening test for sensitization as total IgE lower than 10 kU/L [21] did not preclude sensitization.…”

Impairment of lung function might be related to IL-10 and IFN-γ defective production in allergic children

“…The observed lack of correlation between pulmonary function values and total IgE (surrogate markers of Th2-dependent immune response) is not surprising, since the same observation has been previously reported in a similar group of children [12]. On the contrary, interesting are the preliminary data supporting the hypothesis that the development of pulmonary function deterioration might be associated with a defective production of some cytokines, such as of IFN-␥ and IL-10, involved in allergic response [3,4].…”