Simple Saliva Test To Diagnose Asthma

Scientists have developed a new test that can diagnose asthma from a patient's saliva, offering a completely painless and one-stop diagnosis suitable for people of all ages.
To diagnose the condition doctors usually measure a person's airflow lung capacity. However lung function tests can be inaccurate and do not reflect underlying changes associated with asthma.
Other tests, such as blood, urine or sputum analysis can be distressing, particularly for younger patients.....

Read more here: ndtv.com

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Makeup of germs in newborn's gut may triple allergy, asthma risk

(HealthDay)—A relatively rare abnormality in the makeup of germs in an infant's gut may triple the risk for allergies and asthma in childhood, new research warns.
Millions of bacteria and fungi can be found in everyone's gut, but the new study suggests that an out-of-whack combination of bugs, present in less than 10 percent of newborns, may undermine immune system function.
The result: A much higher risk for allergies by 2 years of age and asthma by age 4, the researchers said.....

Read more here: medicalxpress.com

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Lebrikizumab may help reduce asthma exacerbations in biomarker-high patients

Although lebrikizumab failed to consistently show significant decrease in asthma exacerbations in biomarker-high patients, it blocked interleukin-13 as evidenced by the effect on interleukin-13-related pharmacodynamics biomarkers, according to a study. In addition, clinically relevant changes could not be ruled out.
Researchers conducted replicate phase III studies (LAVOLTA I and LAVOLTA II) to assess the efficacy and safety of lebrikizumab in patients with uncontrolled asthma despite inhaled corticosteroids and at least 1 second controller medication.....

Read more here: specialty.mims.com