Pediatria pre prax 3/2012

Anti-IgE therapy of severe asthma in children and adolescents

Patients with severe asthma or asthma not responding to treatment represent a heterogeneous group, with substantial morbidity. A broader differential diagnosis is needed to exclude alternative diagnosis or to search for co-morbidities, complicating the original disease. Concurrently a detailed history of treatment adherence is necessary and individual assessment of the treatment strategy as well. In case of IgE mediated asthma, when moderate to high doses of inhaled steroids in combination with other anti-asthma drugs cannot control the disease a monoclonal anti-IgE antibodies could be the next step of treatment. In pediatric patients there is limited number of randomized controlled clinical studies, but the first clinical experiences are encouraging. In this article we report a case study of a 14 year old boy treated with anti-IgE antibody for more than one year.

Keywords: severe asthma, children, anti-IgE, case presentation