MJ, KH, YM, HM, MY, SO, YW, MY, and SS contributed to the analysis of the study, and supported the development of the manuscript. with decreased or unchanged IgE. The prevalence of uncontrolled asthma was higher in patients with increased IgE than in those with decreased or unchanged IgE. Mean %FEV1 and FEV1% were lower in patients with increased IgE than in those with decreased or unchanged IgE. Moreover, the prevalence of (house dust mite: HDM), (cedar), (ragweed), (candida), (aspergillus), (alternaria), doggie dander, cat dander, (moth), and (cockroach)] were collected at enrollment. The definition of atopic type was being positive to crude house dust-specific IgE. Asthma control was assessed using the validated Japanese version of the Take action. Patients were subjectively evaluated for the degree of impairment caused by their asthma during the preceding 4 weeks by responding to five questions using a five-point level. Spirometry was performed using an AS-302 spirometer (Minato Medical Science Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan) in accordance with American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society guidelines [23,24] to determine FEV1, forced vital capacity (FVC), and FEV1/FVC (FEV1%). The highest value from three technically acceptable attempts was recorded. FEV1 and FVC values were expressed as a percentage of the predicted value. Alizapride HCl FeNO was measured by a portable device (NIOX MINO, Aerocrine AB, Solna, Sweden) at an expiratory circulation rate of 50 mL/s for 10 s. Serum total IgE levels, measured with a fluorescent enzyme immunoassay (ImmunoCAP-FEIA, Phadia, Freiburg, Germany) were transformed logarithmically to normalize their distribution. A zero was replaced with a value half of the lowest value observed before log transformation. Antigen-specific IgE was also measured with ImmunoCAP-FEIA, and levels higher than class 2 were considered as positive. The longitudinal switch in total IgE (IgE) was calculated as log total IgE at present C log total IgE 10 years ago. An increase or decrease in total IgE was arbitrarily designated as a variance of 0.15 log10 kU/L. Statistical analyses Results were expressed as mean??SD for continuous variables. FeNO values were transformed logarithmically to normalize their distribution. All analyses were performed using JMP version 10 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Differences in the continuous variables between Alizapride HCl groups were tested by analysis of variance (ANOVA); if the differences between groups were significant, comparisons were made by unpaired 0.05 was considered significant for all those statistical assessments. Results Background One hundred and fifty-four patients Alizapride HCl with asthma with a median age of 62.5 years (range 21C82) were included. The mean BMI was 23.1??3.6, and 62 patients (40.3%) were men. Thirteen patients (8.4%) were current smokers, and 31 patients (20.1%) were ex-smokers at the time of enrollment. The mean Take action score and FeNO were 20.7??3.7 and 51.3??42.9 ppb, respectively. In the pulmonary function test, the mean DKFZp564D0372 FVC and FEV1 were 2.5??0.9 L (%FVC: 88.2??19.3%), and 1.8??0.8 L (%FEV1: 75.0??23.0%), respectively. Mean total IgE was 2.43??0.65 log10 kU/L 10 years ago and 2.37??0.66 log10 kU/L at the time of the study. An increase or decrease in IgE was arbitrarily designated as a variance of 0.15 log10kU/L. Physique?1 displays the distribution of patients according to longitudinal switch in IgE. Open in a separate window Physique 1 Distribution of the longitudinal switch in IgE across 0.25 in patients with adult asthma. Demographic details for Alizapride HCl the patient population are shown in Table?1. No significant differences were observed in gender, BMI, percent adult onset, smoking status, atopic type, pet ownership, allergic rhinitis, pollinosis, eosinophils, or FeNO between the groups. However, there Alizapride HCl were significant differences in age, prevalence of patients treated at levels higher than Step 4 4, frequency of use of on-demand oral corticosteroid (OCS), episode of acute exacerbation within a year, and pre-IgE level between the groups. Mean age was significantly higher for patients with increased IgE than for those with decreased or unchanged IgE. However, in this study, there was no significant correlation between IgE and age (data not shown). Mean pre-IgE level was significantly lower in patients with increased IgE than in patients.