查看文章

Materials and Methods

Our study was conducted on a cohort of 52 bronchial asthma patients recruited from the Allergy and Immunology clinic at Ain Shams University hospitals during the period from January till May 2015. We included adult patients (≥ 16 years) with history of moderate or severe asthma; the severity of asthma was classified according to GINA guidelines for asthma severity (GINA 2015). Exclusion criteria included patients with inflammatory or septic conditions, including oral sepsis, patients with associated systemic autoimmune diseases, patients on systemic glucocorticoids and/or systemic antifungals, patients who had received antihistaminic drugs, cytotoxic drugs, patients with organ failure and pregnant females. All patients were subjected to full detailed history with emphasis on history of wheezes, chest tightness, dyspnea, cough, factors causing increase of symptom, nocturnal symptoms and seasonal variation, family history of asthma and/or atopic disorders. Symptoms and signs of ABPA are those of asthma in addition to productive cough and, occasionally, fever and anorexia. Pulmonary function test was done for staging of bronchial asthma. ABPA was suspected if the patients met four of the following criteria: clinical diagnosis of asthma; immediate skin test reactivity to A. fumigatus; elevated total IgE level (≥ 417 IU/mL); peripheral blood eosinophilia and radiological evidence of ABPA.