Allergology international : official journal of the Japanese Society of Allergology
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Omalizumab in Japanese children with severe allergic asthma uncontrolled with standard therapy.
Omalizumab has demonstrated clinical benefits in children with moderate to severe allergic asthma. However, no studies have been performed in Japanese asthmatic children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy including free IgE suppression and safety of omalizumab in Japanese children with severe allergic asthma. The primary objective was to examine whether omalizumab decreases serum free IgE levels to less than 25 ng/ml (target level of suppression). ⋯ In Japanese children with severe allergic asthma, omalizumab decreased free IgE levels to less than 25 ng/mL. Omalizumab improved asthma control and was well-tolerated, as well.
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Although it is currently recognized that bronchial asthma is not a single disease but a syndrome, we have not yet made use of our new understanding of this heterogeneity as we treat asthma patients. To increase the efficacy of anti-asthma drugs and to decrease costs, it is important to stratify asthma patients into subgroups and to develop therapeutic strategies for each subgroup. Periostin has recently emerged as a biomarker for bronchial asthma, unique in that it is useful not in diagnosis but in categorizing asthma patients. ⋯ Furthermore, we have recently shown that serum periostin can predict resistance or hyporesponsiveness to inhaled corticosteroids, based on its contribution to tissue remodeling or fibrosis in bronchial asthma. Thus, serum periostin has two characteristics as a biomarker for bronchial asthma: it is both a surrogate biomarker of type 2 immune responses and a biomarker reflecting tissue remodeling or fibrosis. We can take advantage of these characteristics to develop stratified medicine in bronchial asthma.
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Reliable assessment of not only symptoms but also lung function is essential in asthma management. We developed a new technology for analyzing lung sounds and assessed its clinical usefulness in asthmatic children. ⋯ It was possible to evaluate airway dysfunction of asthma using ic700, which was calculated non-invasively by analyzing lung sounds alone, without measuring body size and airflow.