Related Articles

Maternal Smoking in Pregnancy and Asthma in Preschool Children: a Pooled Analysis of 8 Birth Cohorts.

Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2012 Sep 5;

Authors: Neuman A, Hohmann C, Orsini N, Pershagen G, Eller E, Fomsgaard Kjaer H, Gehring U, Granell R, Henderson J, Heinrich J, Lau S, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Sunyer J, Tischer C, Torrent M, Wahn U, Wijga AH, Wickman M, Keil T, Bergström A, as part of the ENRIECO Consortium

Abstract
RATIONALE: Although epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to maternal smoking during fetal and early life increases the risk of childhood wheezing and asthma, previous studies were not able to differentiate effects of prenatal from postnatal exposure. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of exposure to maternal smoking only during pregnancy on preschool age wheeze and asthma. METHODS: A pooled analysis was performed based on individual participant data from eight European birth cohorts. Cohort-specific effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy, but not during the first year, on wheeze and asthma at age four to six years were estimated using logistic regression and then combined using a random effects model. Adjustments were made for sex, parental education, parental asthma, birth weight and siblings. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Among the 21,600 children included in the analysis, 735 children (3.4 %) were exposed to maternal smoking exclusively during pregnancy but not in the first year after birth. In the pooled analysis, maternal smoking only during pregnancy was associated with wheeze and asthma at age four to six years, adjusted odds ratio 1.39 (95 % CI 1.08-1.77) and 1.65 (1.18-2.31), respectively. The likelihood to develop wheeze and asthma increased statistically significantly in a linear dose-dependent manner in relation to maternal daily cigarette consumption during the first trimester of pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal smoking during pregnancy appears to increase the risk of wheeze and asthma also among children who are not exposed to maternal smoking after birth.

PMID: 22952297 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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Household chemicals, immune function, and allergy: A commentary.

J Immunotoxicol. 2012 Sep 7;

Authors: Kimber I, Pieters R

Abstract
In recent decades, in the US and in Western and Northern Europe, there has been a significant increase in the prevalence of atopic allergic disease. Although that increase may now be slowing, or have already reached a plateau, there remains considerable interest in the factor or factors that may have caused this increased susceptibility to allergy and asthma. Certainly, the changes recorded have been too rapid to implicate a change in the gene pool, and for that reason attention has focused on the possible impact of environmental, dietary, and lifestyle factors. Although the hygiene hypothesis proposes that increased susceptibility to allergic sensitization is associated with changes in childhood exposure pathogenic microorganisms, other factors have been considered also. Among these is exposure to chemicals and atmospheric pollutants. There is some evidence that exposure to certain chemicals may elicit or exacerbate respiratory reactions in those who are already sensitized, or who already have existing airway disease. However, a recent article has proposed that exposure to specific household cleaning products may be one factor that is able to affect susceptibility to allergic sensitization. In the light of that article it is timely now to consider again the ability of chemical exposure to influence sensitization to common antigens.

PMID: 22953700 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Tiotropium delivered by the Respimat SMI significantly increased the time to first severe asthma exacerbation and in addition, reduced the risk of exacerbations (P = 0.03) in adults who remain symptomatic despite treatment with at least inhaled corticosteroids (ICS)/long-acting beta-agonists (LABA) in phase III PrimoTinA-asthma™ studies, presented today at the 2012 European Respiratory Society (ERS) congress. Tiotropium also significantly improved lung function in symptomatic asthma patients on ICS/LABA.(2) (Source: Pharmacy Europe)