TUESDAY, Oct. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Younger patients with severe or difficult-to-treat asthma tend to have higher total serum IgE levels compared to those with mild or moderate asthma, according to research published in the September issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
Larry Borish, M.D., of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and colleagues examined data on 4,756 patients ages 6 and older enrolled in The Epidemiology and Natural History of Asthma: Outcomes and Treatment Regimens (TENOR) study.
As a group, patients with severe asthma had a mean IgE level of 106.6 IU/mL. But significant differences were observed in mean levels between children, adolescents and adults (182.5, 223.8 and 85.2, respectively); whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asian/Pacific Islanders (90.2, 187.8, 143.9 and 233.7, respectively); and current, past and never smokers (161.3, 83.4 and 82.7, respectively). Among adults, patients with childhood-onset asthma had higher levels than did those with adult-onset asthma (124.3 and 65.7, respectively). Across all age groups, males had significantly higher levels than did females.
"The TENOR study provides the unique opportunity to examine the natural history of asthma in the understudied severe asthma population," the authors conclude. "Additional planned TENOR analyses will examine the relationship between IgE levels and allergic status, lung function, and IgE levels in patients with allergic comorbidities." The study is funded by Genentech and Novartis.
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