Allergy

With the US Food and Drug Administration's recent approval of 2 sublingual immunotherapies for allergic rhinitis with or without conjunctivitis, US physicians no longer have to pursue the off-label use of these treatments.

Research from North Carolina's biggest universities that identified new ways to bind polyphenol-rich foods with peanut flour may one day help patients with severe food allergies develop increased tolerance without risking anaphylaxis.

Inhaler-delivered drug is a once-daily maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with COPD, including chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema.

Grastek is the first sublingual allergy immunotherapy product to be approved for use in children as young as age 5.

Nuts should be given their own small space on the "MyPlate" in light of their solid evidence-based recommendation for daily consumption.

Once confirmation of an asthma diagnosis is made, most primary care physicians can manage the condition and need refer only challenging cases to a pulmonologist.

With rates of asthma flare-ups were twice as high in September as in August, researchers suggest that people are lax about asthma medication use during the summer before children return to school and are exposed to viral infections.

Inconsistencies between ClinicalTrials.gov and medical journals' reporting are raising questions about the editing and disseminating process.

The annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology was held from Feb. 28 to March 4 in San Diego and attracted more than 5,000 participants from around the world, including clinicians, academicians, allied health professionals, and others interested in allergic and immunologic disease. The conference highlighted recent advances in allergy, asthma, and immunology.

Glucocorticosteroids have been shown to be effective for treating chronic rhinosinusitis associated with allergic rhinitis and nasal polyps. There are several formulations of topical and oral agents available to clinicians.

Research into the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis has shed new light on the association between asthma and CRS while also providing new insight into CRS disease endotypes, enabling clinicians to individualize treatment regimens.

Although the mechanisms of disease severity for this form of asthma are not fully understood, progress has been made in identifying promising targets for new treatments.

Successful applications of nanotechnology in the field of immunology will enable new generations of vaccines, adjuvants, and immunomodulatory drugs that aim to improve clinical outcomes in response in a range of infectious and non-infectious diseases.

Researchers concluded the asthma drug omalizumab can be used to successfully desensitize patients with multiple food allergies

Due to its ambiguous etiology, the low cost-to-benefit ratio associated with many laboratory tests used in assessment and diagnosis, and the low-to-moderate strength of evidence supporting many pharmacologic approaches to treatment, chronic urticaria can be one of the most difficult inflammatory skin conditions for clinicians to manage.

A review of the various guidelines on the treatment of chronic urticaria shows there is limited evidence demonstrating the efficacy of many commonly used medications, with the strongest evidence supporting the use of one or more second-generation antihistamines.

Research shows that although mast cells are key effector cells in the pathogenesis of urticaria, targeting individual mast cell mediators is often not therapeutically effective

With reimbursement increasingly tied to quality measures and other metrics, the question of whether best practices actually produce improved outcomes has taken on greater importance for clinicians and their patients.

Improved control of allergic rhinitis with allergy immunotherapy can mitigate the development and severity of other allergic and respiratory diseases, leading to a reduction in the use of outpatient services.

New research suggests that patients with allergic rhinitis face significantly lower risks for heart attacks, cerebrovascular disease, and all-cause mortality.

Researchers wanting to untangle the genetic aspect of the hepatitis C virus that allows it to resist treatment discovered that one particular DNA variant acts like a powerful weapon that helps some people to better fight the disease.

In patients who don't have fully functional immune systems, cerebral manifestations of Chagas disease can be lethal.

Researchers have developed a pig model that mimics the human immune response to H. pylori infection, enabling them to better predict the progression and outcomes of infection.

Researchers have had little success in developing an HIV cure, but recent studies involving gene therapy, immune-based therapy, reactivation of the immune system, and "very early" treatment have produced promising results.

While substantial evidence already shows several genetic and environmental elements factor into immune-mediated rheumatic disease susceptibility, a recent review of hospital admissions data suggests vitamin D deficiency can single-handedly elevate a patient's risk of developing certain chronic conditions within that group of disorders.

Unique interactive resource from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University offers visual depiction of HIV prevalence data.

It may be possible to "reverse engineer" molecules that activate precursors of effective, neutralizing antibodies against the HIV virus.

While it's important for nutrition and an integral part of patients' lives, food also plays a role in functional gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Vaccinating pregnant women against the influenza virus appears to have a significant positive effect on infant birth weight.

Infants who grow at an accelerated pace have an increased risk of asthma symptoms, researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands have found.