It's Here! Home Monitoring For Asthma

 During a period where office visits are reduced when possible and safe, and when some lung function testing maneuvers are avoided (spirometry) because of increased risk for asymptomatic infection spread, it is a great advantage to have quality home monitoring options.  The Capmedic device does this and provides the additional benefit of coaching asthma patients through proper lung function and allowing your asthma doctor to monitor compliance.  Dr. Susarla

CapMedic Measures Lung Function, Makes Sure Inhalers Used Correctly

The FDA has cleared the CapMedic device that helps to make sure that metered dose inhalers (MDIs) are properly used, even by young patients.

MDIs are most commonly employed to deliver asthma medications deep into the lungs, but to work effectively they have to be used correctly and on a consistent schedule.

The CapMedic snaps onto the top of many inhalers and, using built-in lights and a tiny speaker, it works to nudge users to inhale the medication correctly and at the right time. When a person is ready, the device talks them through all the steps, like shaking the inhaler, properly squeezing it while keeping it upright, and timing the inhalation just right.

The same device can snap onto an accompanying plastic adapter to turn it into an accurate at-home spirometer for lung function measurement. It can now measure FEV1, the maximum amount of air that the patient can push in a second, and PEF, the maximum flow one can generate at a steady rate.

Readings about usage and spirometer data are stored on an accompanying smartphone, helping patients, parents, and caretakers, make sure that the inhaled medication regimen is adhered to.

“Decades of studies have shown that almost 90% of patients are unable to use MDIs correctly – a result of their complex, multi-step usage requirements. The Cognita team has conducted drug deposition studies showing a tenfold improvement in the delivery of medication from just 4-5% to 45% when inhalers are used correctly,” said Rajoshi Biswas, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder at Cognita Labs, in the announcement. “Getting an effective daily dose means patients are more likely to avoid costly, life-threatening hospitalizations.”

Read article here.

10 Treatable Traits That Could Predict Asthma Attacks

The science and art of predicting asthma risk may go beyond asthma symptoms and lung physiology and intersect with the presence of chronic disease. Dr. Susarla

With increasing attention on a “treatable traits”—a new classification and precision medicine strategy for asthma and other chronic airway diseases,1 a team of researchers set out to examine whether and which treatable traits could be identified from registry data in persons with severe asthma and used to predict the future risk of asthma exacerbations.2

In their study, published in the journal Respirology, the investigators recorded the prevalence of the treatable asthma traits of 434 participants with severe asthma and 102 participants with non-severe asthma, all of whom were enrolled in the Australasian Severe Asthma Web‐Based Database. The prevalence of participants’ treatable asthma traits were described. They assessed participants at the study’s outset and then every 6 months thereafter for 24 months.

Of the 24 treatable traits the researchers identified, 10 predicted exacerbation risk in the participants with severe asthma, with the 5 strongest as follows:

• Being prone to exacerbations
• Depression
• Inhaler device polypharmacy
• Vocal cord dysfunction
• Obstructive sleep apnea

“Treatable traits can be assessed using a severe asthma registry,” the authors concluded. “In severe asthma, patients express more treatable traits than non‐severe asthma. Traits may be associated with future asthma exacerbation risk demonstrating the clinical utility of assessing treatable traits.”

Read article here.

Asthma and migraines connected?

To complicate matters, some migraine medication (beta-blockers) can interfere with asthma rescue inhalers and may worsen the disease process.  Dr. Susarla

Adolescents who have asthma or allergic rhinitis may be at higher risk for developing migraine, according to a study published in The Clinical Respiratory Journal.

Previous studies illustrated a relationship between asthma and migraines (primarily in adult populations). This large cross-sectional study also included the classification of specialist-diagnosed asthma and migraine.

Using data from the Israel Defense Forces recruitment database, study authors identified 113,671 adolescent draftees (n=66,547 young men; n=47,124 young women; all were 17 years old) diagnosed with asthma or migraine between 1987 and 2010. Investigators examined migraine prevalence in this cohort. Certified specialists in neurology and pulmonology, respectively, confirmed the diagnoses for migraine and asthma.

Read article here.