American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

Patients who could benefit from aspirin may be (wrongly) told that they are allergic because they had a reaction to the drug.

"The small number of patients that go on to develop chronic rhinosinusitis accumulates to about 15% of the population, making it an important disease," said Dr. Michael A. Kaliner during his lecture on chronic rhinosinusitis.

Although categorizing chronic rhinosinusitis is complex, CRS with or without nasal polyps is one way to initially begin classification. Prolonged duration of RS symptoms (>8-12 weeks) is the primary reason to evaluate patients for CRS. Dr. Meltzer emphasized the need to differentiate CRS from recurrent episodes of ARS.

During his lecture, Dr. Eli O. Meltzer walked his audience through diagnosis and management guidelines of sinusitis/ rhinosinusitis at the ACAAI annual meeting.

There are conflicting data regarding whether vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for asthma. Observational studies have linked low vit D status with impaired lung capacity, increased airway hyperresponsiveness, corticosteroid unresponsiveness, relatively poor asthma control, and higher rates of asthma-related hospitalization.

Dr. Michael B. Foggs's lecture, "Here Comes the Sun: Vitamin D and Asthma," described the complex metabolic relationships and current knowledge gaps regarding vitamin D and its relationship to asthma.

During his presentation, Dr. Carlos Camargo reviewed recent studies on the effects of menarche, menopause, and pregnancy on asthma, and described the implications for patients with asthma.

Dr. Leonard B. Bacharier presented a lecture evaluating evidence-based treatments for wheezing and asthma in childhood and adolescence.

Virtually all asthma starts as episodic viral wheeze. Dr. Bush presented results from the Colt-Ashford Study, a community based, all-comers study of 642 babies born.

Dr. Andrew Bush asked his colleagues to consider the possibility that very early airway hyperresponsiveness, not inflammation, initiates asthma.

Pets can cause a variety of health problems for those with sensitivities but there are environmental changes that can help, according to Dana Wallace, MD, PA, associate clinical professor, Nova Southeastern University.

Everyone knows the risks of heart disease and cancer due to smoking but researchers are looking at the association between smoking and allergic disease.

The array of bacteria in the gut biome in the first six months of life provides protective benefits for the rest of life, according to Larry Borish, MD, FACAAI, professor of medicine at the University of Virginia.

The growing market for home air fresheners is impacting respiratory health, according to Stanley Fineman, MD, MBA, president-elect of ACAAI, associate clinical professor department of pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta Allergy & Allergy Clinic.

Early exposure to animals and infections could decrease the tendency to become allergic, according to Thomas A.E. Platts-Mills, MD, PHD, FACAAI, Asthma and Allergic Disease Center, University of Virginia Medical School.

The incidence of allergic disease has risen 50 percent each decade since the 1960s, according to Phillip Lieberman, MD, FACAAI, Clinical Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics (Divisions of Allergy and Immunology) at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.

During the Ira Finegold Lecture, Thomas B. Casale, MD, FACAAI, professor of medicine at Creghton University School of Medicine, spoke about the role that diet and supplement can have on immune therapy. "For allergies, the immune system could be trained to ignore allergens like pollen and cat dander but still fight bacterial pathogens," he said.

Asthma and allergy patients would benefit from their physician taking a closer look at immunology, said M. Louise Markert, MD, PhD, Associate Professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, during a plenary session at the American College of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology's annual meeting.

HCPLive will be providing live coverage from the 2011 ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting starting Saturday, November 5.