Some patients with severe asthma who also have allergic sensitivity to certain fungi enjoy great improvements in their quality of life and on other measures after taking an antifungal drug, according to new research from The University of Manchester in England.

Up to 150,000 people suffering from severe asthma in the UK could benefit from taking antifungal medication already available from pharmacists, new research has found.

Asthmatx, Inc., a medical device company that has developed a catheter-based procedure under investigation for the treatment of asthma, announced today the publication of data from the Research in Severe Asthma (RISA) Trial of bronchial thermoplasty in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM, 2007; 176:1185-1191).

A multi-center research project to investigate severe asthma has found a key physiological difference between severe and non-severe forms of the disease, a finding that could help explain why those with severe asthma do not respond well to treatment.

A protein measured in a simple blood test may be a new biomarker to identify patients with the most serious form of asthma, Yale School of Medicine researchers report today in the New England Journal of Medicine.