Methods: Study included 36 patients who visited Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital emergency department for mild to moderate asthma exacerbation between Sept 22, 2008 and Nov 8, 2010. We defined fall group as patients who visited emergency department in Sept, Oct, Nov and the rest were defined as non-fall group. We compared the clinical features, allergen specific IgE, cytokine, total IgE, eosinophilic cationic protein between fall group and non-fall group.
Results: Twenty-eight patients were included in fall group and 8 were non-fall group. Within the fall group, 14 (50%) visited emergency department in October. Mean age of fall group was 6.0 and 15 (58.3%) were male. Mean age of non-fall group was 5.6 and 6 (75.0%) were male. Total IgE was significantly higher in fall group; 787 IU/ml in fall group and 247 IU/ml in non-fall group. Antibody titer for Dermatophagoides farinae was 50.9 kUA/L and 11.9 kUA/L in fall group and non-fall group respectively. Antibody titer for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus was 126.4 kUA/L and 27.1 kUA/L in fall group and non-fall group. Fall group showed significantly higher titers for house dust mite. Proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6,G-CSF showed no significant difference between 2 groups. Antiviral cytokines such as IP-10 and IFN-γ showed no difference.
Conclusions: We found that in Korea, asthma exacerbation occurs most commonly in October. We also found that atopic tendency and sensitization to house dust mite plays an important role in asthma exacerbation rather than viral infection as previously thought. However, further study will be needed to clarify why such difference occurred.