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Originally Posted by medicerik
After digging through the data, I've come across what's called the integrated airway hypothesis (what Doc referred to as one airway one disease) A study from the Allergy and Asthma Medical Group and Research Center showed by doing a metanalysis of several studies that 19 to 38 percent of patietns with rhinitis also have asthma.
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That's close to what I'm reading/seeing in the clinics too. Approx. 38% of rhinitis patients have asthma and approx. 75% of asthma patients have rhinitis according to what study you read.
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Originally Posted by medicerik
The belief is that local inflammation in the upper airways by an allergen also causes inflammation in the lower airways leading to worsening of asthma. The same metanalysis of the data showed a moderate improvement in asthma symptoms in those who had their allergic rhinitis appropriately treated.
I learn something new everyday!!!!!
Erik
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For both rhinitis and asthma we use low dose corticosteroids to reduce inflammation, the leading culprit in both disease processes. Problem is, patient compliance can be an issue. Patients take medicine, symptoms improve, patient forgets to take medicine and symptoms re-occur. While this isn't really bad for a rhinitis patient, it can be really bad for an asthma patient when they have an exacerbation.
Does anyone know what an asthma medicine holiday is?