Anti-fungal drug helps some with asthma

MANCHESTER, England, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Some with severe asthma who also have allergic sensitivity to certain fungi experienced improvements after taking an anti-fungal drug, British researchers say.

Researchers at the University of Manchester in England say about 1 percent of severe asthmatics are known to have a syndrome called allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, an extreme allergy to Aspergillus fumigatus fungus that is associated with the long-term colonization of their respiratory tracts with the fungus.

But 20 percent to 50 percent are sensitized to a variety of fungi without showing overt clinical signs or demonstrable colonization. It is these patients with severe asthma with fungal sensitization, who are most likely to enjoy marked improvement with the anti-fungal therapy.

In the double-blind study, 58 patients with severe asthma and allergic sensitivity to at least one of seven different common fungi -- confirmed by a skin-prick test or blood test -- were randomized to receive either an oral dose of itraconazole, 200 mg twice a day, or a placebo.

After 32 weeks of treatment, 62 percent, who were randomized to receive the drug, experienced significant improvements on their Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaires, and in runny nose and morning lung function.

However, 11 of the patients who received the drug left the trial before completion, some citing side effects that included nausea, breathlessness and muscle weakness and four months after stopping anti-fungal treatment, symptoms had returned.

The findings are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.