Know your IgE
Allergen specific IgE antibodies are one of the causes for attacks in patients with allergic asthma. Many asthmatic children and adults are exposed daily to allergens that may trigger attacks. A simple blood test called ImmunoCAP® may help. The test can be ordered by a pediatrician or family doctor to help determine what the asthmatic triggers are. This then enables the clinician to implement very specific exposure reduction techniques. The test will indicate the allergens to which you are sensitized and with this information in hand, the clinician can develop a plan to reduce your contact with these allergens.
If you can reduce how much exposure an asthmatic patient has to allergens, you can often decrease the occurrences of asthma attacks, and reduce overall sensitivity of these attacks. When a child is back in school and it is his/her turn to develop the infection du jour, you may be able to keep the symptoms from ever reaching their airways, if you have worked hard to reduce the child’s exposure to the allergic component of their asthma. It is nearly impossible to shield ourselves, and our children, from exposure to viruses and bacteria, so we can only treat those when we see symptoms. With a simple blood test though, we can treat the allergy BEFORE the child comes into contact with the virus or bacteria, hopefully lessening the intensity of symptoms if and when the child develops a cold.
This is the part of a child’s asthma that you do have some control over. Allergy control may lead to an improvement of the symptoms of asthma, preventing attacks due to viral and bacterial infections.
Subsequent blog submissions will include specific recommendations on how to go about controlling each allergen you’ve tested positive for.
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