Allergy/Asthma News

In five randomized controlled trials, patients with persistent, uncontrolled asthma who received placebo therapy demonstrated statistically significant improvement in outcomes, according to a study published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

 Penicillin is the most commonly implicated medication reported as the source of a drug allergy, with a reported incidence of up to 10% in the United States. However, only about 1% of the reported population has a confirmed anaphylactic reaction and is therefore appropriately labeled with a penicillin allergy.

May 7 marks the 21st annual World Asthma Day — a day during which medical societies, advocacy groups and health care providers renew their commitment to finding effective treatments for a chronic condition that profoundly affects quality of life for millions of people worldwide, according to estimates from the CDC, WHO and NIH.

PHILADELPHIA – Highlights from this year’s American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting included “practice-changing” information related to gastroenterology, infectious diseases, medical marijuana, allergies, rheumatology and arthritis, according to Healio Primary Care Today board member Alan Dow, MD, MSHA.

Children who were hospitalized for asthma exacerbations and were prescribed azithromycin did not have shorter lengths of stay or a decreased risk for adverse events compared with children who received a placebo, according to findings of a randomized clinical trial presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting.

The Peanut Allergen immunotherapy, Clarifying the Evidence, or PACE, study found that existing peanut oral immunotherapy considerably increased allergic and anaphylactic reactions despite inducing desensitization.

A recent study in The Journal of Urban Health found that approximately 20% of New York City teenagers had asthma symptoms but had not received an asthma diagnosis.

PHILADELPHIA — There are several medications and tests that are commonly overused in primary care and hospital settings that may be causing more harm than benefit, according to a presenter at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting 2019.

PHILADELPHIA — When anaphylaxis is suspected, diagnostic criteria, symptoms, risk factors, clinical history and pitfalls are important to consider in confirming the diagnosis, according to a presentation at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting.

PHILADELPHIA — About 95% of patients who say they are allergic to penicillin are really not, according to a presentation at the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting.