The role of total IgE as a predictor of asthma in Barbadian subjects - abstract

ABSTRACT

Assessment of the epidemiology of asthma requires that the asthma phenotype be characterized. A study was conducted in Barbados among 24 families (n = 175 persons). The geometric mean serum total IgE (tIgE) was 559.8 ng/ml, and was significantly higher in asthmatic subjects (n = 88; means = 1352.1) than in non-asthmatic subjects (n = 87; means = 229.6; t-test, p < 0.001). Asthma subjects reported shortness of breath (80.7 percent), cough (77.3 percent), wheezing (72.7 percent). An index of asthma severity was created based on questionnaire data. Shortness of breath, cough and wheeze were similarly correlated with the index of severity; however, none of the symptoms were significantly correlated with tIgE. Similarly, tIgE was not correlated with the severity score of any of the individual variables that comprised the severity score. The findings in this study of Afro-Caribbean subjects living in a tropical setting concur with those of Caucasian subjects living in developed, temperate locales, whereby tIgE is a good means of classifying the presence or absence of asthma. The poor association between tIgE and severity of asthma and asthma symptoms warrants further investigation into the validation of the severity scale, but raises the question regarding the absence of a relationship between tIgE and asthma severity (AU)