Management of the Pregnant Patient with Beta-Lactam Allergy.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: We review the literature and discuss the logistics of testing pregnant patients for penicillin allergy. RECENT FINDINGS: As in the general population, pregnant patients commonly report a penicillin allergy, but most patients are able to tolerate penicillin. Avoidance of beta-lactams in pregnancy is associated with increased morbidity: longer hospitalizations, more frequent infections, and more complications. Penicillin allergy testing is safe in pregnant patients, and obstetricians are eager for allergists to offer this procedure to their patients. As allergists, we can improve our patients' health outcomes by offering penicillin allergy testing in our practices. The protocols for testing both with and without skin testing in pregnant patients have been studied, and future studies will continue to clarify the safety and efficacy of penicillin allergy delabeling in pregnant patients.

Perinatal Outcomes Associated with Maternal Asthma and Its Severity and Control During Pregnancy.

BACKGROUND: Estimates of the effects of maternal asthma on pregnancy outcomes are inconsistent across studies, possibly because of differences in exposure definition. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the risk of adverse perinatal outcomes associated with maternal asthma diagnosis, severity, and control in a large, nationally representative cohort. METHODS: This study was conducted within the IBM Health MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database (2011-2015) and the Medicaid Analytic eXtract database (2000-2014). Asthma was identified by diagnosis and treatment codes, severity was based on medications dispensed, and control was based on short-acting ß-agonist dispensations and exacerbations. We estimated the relative risks (RRs) of stillbirth, spontaneous abortion, preterm birth, small for gestational age (SGA), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission, and congenital malformations, comparing pregnancies with differing asthma disease status. RESULTS: We identified 29,882 pregnancies complicated by asthma in the MarketScan database and 160,638 in the Medicaid Analytic eXtract database. We observed no consistent associations between asthma diagnosis, severity, or control, and stillbirth, abortions, or malformations. However, we observed increased risks of prematurity, SGA, and NICU admission among women with asthma compared with those without asthma. Compared with women with well-controlled asthma, women with poor control late in pregnancy had an increased risk of preterm birth (relative risk, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.32-1.46) and NICU admission (relative risk, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.17-1.35). More severe asthma was associated with SGA (relative risk, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.07-1.30). CONCLUSIONS: We did not observe an increased risk of pregnancy losses or malformations among women with asthma. However, we found an association between asthma severity and SGA, and between exacerbations late in pregnancy and preterm delivery and NICU admission.

Impact of parental asthma, prenatal maternal asthma control, and vitamin D status on risk of asthma and recurrent wheeze in 3-year-old children.

BACKGROUND: While familial clustering of asthma is known, few studies have reported on the relative roles of paternal and maternal asthma and the role of maternal asthma control in pregnancy on the risk for asthma in the child. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the relative roles of paternal asthma, maternal asthma, and maternal asthma control during pregnancy on the risk of asthma or recurrent wheeze in 3-year-old children and how prenatal and cord blood vitamin D status might affect this risk. METHODS: Data from 806 women, their partners (biologic fathers of the infants), and their children participated in the Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trail (VDAART, clinicaltrials.gov identification number NCT00920621) were used for this cohort analysis. The parental report of physician-diagnosed asthma or recurrent wheeze in offspring was the main outcome. Weibull regression models for interval-censored event times were used to estimate the main variables of interests and additional covariates on the outcome. RESULTS: The highest risk was observed among children with both parents being asthmatic relative to non-asthmatic parents (aHR = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.35-3.84), and less so if only the mother was asthmatic (aHR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.17-2.40). In the subset of children born to asthmatic mothers, the risk for asthma was higher in those who were born to mothers whose asthma was uncontrolled (aHR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.02-2.54). Children whose mothers had sufficient vitamin D status (25Hydroxyvitamin D ≥ 30 ng/mL) at early and late pregnancy and had cord blood vitamin D sufficiency demonstrated a lower risk of asthma/recurrent wheeze than children who had insufficient cord blood vitamin D status at birth (aHR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.27-0.83). CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Careful attention to maternal asthma control, monitoring vitamin D status, and correcting insufficiency at early pregnancy and maintaining the sufficiency status throughout pregnancy have potential preventive roles in offspring asthma or recurrent wheeze.

The Utility of the Reflux Symptom Index for Diagnosis of Laryngopharyngeal Reflux in an Allergy Patient Population.

BACKGROUND: Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) is associated with asthma, vocal cord dysfunction, cough, postnasal drainage, and throat irritation. The Reflux Symptom Index (RSI) is a clinical tool to predict the presence of LPR, but a threshold RSI score has never been validated for the diagnosis of LPR in an allergic patient population. OBJECTIVE: To identify the optimal threshold RSI score predictive of LPR in an allergy clinic population. METHODS: The 9-question RSI questionnaire was administered to 84 patients in the Kaiser Permanente San Diego Allergy Department. The patient's allergist (who was blinded to the patient's RSI responses) was asked to determine whether the patient had symptoms consistent with LPR. Each subject's RSI score was then compared with a corresponding physician-based diagnosis. After determining the correlation between the subject's RSI score and physician-diagnosed LPR/supraesophageal reflux, a cutoff level above which LPR/supraesophageal reflux would be highly suspected was calculated on the basis of most optimal balance of sensitivity and specificity determined via a receiver-operating curve analysis. RESULTS: Thirty of the 84 patients (36%) were diagnosed with LPR. The mean RSI score for the group without LPR was 18.3 ± 9.8 (out of 45 possible), while the LPR group's mean was 25.0 ± 8.3 (P < .01). The optimal RSI score cutoff was determined to be 19. An abbreviated questionnaire was also generated using 6 of the RSI questions found to be significantly different between patients with and without LPR. CONCLUSIONS: An RSI score of 19 appears to represent the best threshold for predicting LPR in an allergy clinic patient population.