1117 Symptom Triggers in an Adolescent Asthma Population

G. Pyrgos1, E. Horowitz2, D. Joyner2, F. Malveaux3, A. Togias2; 1JohnsHopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, 2Clinical Immunolo-gy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 3Howard University Col-lege of Medicine, Washington, DC.RATIONALE: Triggers of asthma symptoms in adolescents and triggerawareness by their parent/guardians (P/G) have not been formally evaluated.METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 162 adolescentswith asthma, recruited through the Baltimore City Schools and surround-ing counties. Subjects underwent several evaluations including a ques-tionnaire querying for asthma triggers and skin testing. The P/G indepen-dently responded to the same questionnaire.RESULTS: The most common triggers identified by the adolescentswere: exercise 89%, colds/flu 83%, dust 71%, weather changes 71%,emotions 63%, grass 52%, cats 48%, cold air 47%, irritants 45% and dogs35%. Foods were the most unusual triggers (e.g. milk 9%, seafood 8%,peanuts 3%). For the two most common triggers reported by the adoles-cents, concordance with the P/Gs’ report was good (exercise 71%,colds/flu 70% concordance). However, concordance for dust, emotions,grass, cats, cold air, irritants, and dogs was rather poor (<53%). We alsoexamined the concordance between the adolescents’ responses and theirskin testing results. Concordance between dust as a trigger and dust miteskin test was 64% (p=0.018), 71% for cat (p=0.0005), 55% for grass(p=0.41) and 44% for dog (p=0.29). The P/G responses were not betterthan the adolescents in predicting the skin test results.CONCLUSION: A) Exercise and colds/flu are the most common report-ed triggers of asthma in adolescents and are recognized well by bothpatients and their P/Gs. B) With the exception of cat, allergic triggers iden-tified by the adolescent or the PG frequently do not have a biologic basis.Funding: NIH RO1-AI44840, NIH U19-AI31867

J ALLERGY CLIN IMMUNOL Abstracts S305VOLUME 113, NUMBER 2

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