Urine Test Ensures Asthmatic Children Receive Appropriate Treatment

A new urine test could help ensure asthmatic children receive the level of medication they need to manage their illness better and prevent future asthma attacks.

Asthma is a condition that affects the airways and when a person with asthma comes into contact with something that irritates their airways, the muscles around the walls of the airways tighten and become narrower, and the lining of the airways becomes inflamed and starts to swell, causing difficulty in breathing and leading to symptoms of asthma.

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London (UK) in partnership with Jagiellonian University Medical School (Krakow, Poland) reviewed 73 children aged 7 to15 years and found that a urine test can accurately measure levels of inflammation within the urine. Testing was carried out among children with asthma on days when they had no symptoms, and the investigators counted the number of days when they received medical attention or missed school due to asthma symptoms. These urine samples were compared with those of children who did not have asthma.

The teams analyzed levels of prostaglandin metabolites which are chemicals released by immune cells that are activated in asthma and found that one of the protective prostaglandins was greatly reduced in those children who went on to have an asthma attack within three months. The UK has among the highest prevalence rates of asthma symptoms in children worldwide, and there were 25,073 emergency hospital admissions for children in the UK in 2011–2012. That means on average there were 69 per day or one every 21 minutes.

Bernard Higgins, MD, Chairman of the British Thoracic Society Executive Committee, and a consultant lung specialist, said, “Doctors manage a large number of children with asthma throughout the UK and this simple test could help them to prescribe tailored treatment. Most of all this is good news for the well-being of our children with asthma, but attacks of asthma are expensive to treat and if this helps us prevent them it could also save vital NHS resources.” The study was presented at The British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting held December 3–5, 2014, in London (UK).

Related Links:
Queen Mary University of London 
Jagiellonian University Medical School