THE EFFECT OF ORAL ANTI-ALLERGIC DRUGS ON PREVENTION OF ASTHMA

Iikura et al. and Hirota et al. reported that one year treatment with ketotifen could prevent the development of asthma in atopic dermatitis young children. We had a question that this prophylactic effect is unique for ketotifen or common effects of oral anti-allergic drugs, and planned to study ketotifen and tranilast by open study. One hundred and fifty seven atopic dermatitis patients aged from 2 to 42 months who had no history of wheezing were enrolled to this study and 120 patients gave complete data for analysis: K group (71 patients) received ketotifen, T group (19 patients) received tranilast for 1 year and C group (30 patients) received no anti-allergic drugs. Development of asthma in the studying period (1 year) is 28.2% in K group, 15.2% in T group and 60.0% in C group. Our conclusion is that ketotifen and tranilast have equal prophylactic ability on development of asthma in atopic dermatitis young children. This fidings show the probability that other oral anti-allergic drugs have similar asthma preventing effects, too. The question whether prevention of development of asthma in studying period is life long effect or delay of development should be solved by long follow up of patients. We think it is valuable to study the asthma preventing effect of oral anti-allergic drugs other than ketotifen and tranilast.