Asthma Prevention PDF

PREFACE

For many asthmatic patients, the disease has its origins during infancy and early childhood. As such, much of the current research in asthma prevention has focused on events that occur early in life that contribute to asthma inception. The dramatic rise in prevalence of asthma throughout the world in the past few decades has underscored the importance of environmental factors interacting with a genetically susceptible host. Striking differences in prevalence rates in various parts of the world have drawn attention to characteristics of those macroenvironments that may modulate risk for disease expression. This is especially evident in socalled "Westernized" societies. Variations in these environments and their influence on asthma inception must be evaluated further in the context of genetic diversity in populations among various geographic and cultural boundaries that exist as well.

With these epidemiologic observations serving as an impetus for scientific inquiry, much new information has accumulated on the contribution of the environment, genetic background, gene–gene, and gene by environment interactions to the pathogenesis of asthma in the past decade. As a result, we have assembled a group of experts to review these advances in this evolving field of investigation. The first four chapters will review what is known regarding the natural history of asthma from birth to adulthood, with special emphasis on the characterization of various asthmatic phenotypes based on gender, age, ethnicity, and race within the context of various environmental exposures. The second set of chapters will review data on host immune responses and how they contribute to the immunoinflammatory events characteristic of allergic respiratory tract diseases. The third set of reviews will present an in-depth discussion of risk factors that have been determined to contribute to asthma pathogenesis. The final chapters will review treatment strategies, both currently available and under development, in the context of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of asthma and/or allergic diseases. Whenever possible, the authors have used translational approaches in reviewing basic science principles and relating them to asthma disease expression and its therapeutic modulation both short and long term.

This book should prove to be a valuable resource to those individuals desiring a comprehensive review of topics related to asthma prevention. Moreover, it is hoped that it will inspire novel research approaches and new directions for therapeutic interventions that will ultimately result in the primary prevention of this common respiratory tract disease.