Researchers find way to reduce asthma attacks in pregnant womenMay 16, 2018 - 18:05 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - A long-term study managing asthma during pregnancy has found a way to halve the rates of asthma attacks for expectant mothers, while paving the way for asthma prevention in their children, ABC News reports. Catherine Rosser, who participated in the study, has wheezed through life since she was a child, but was not diagnosed with asthma until she was in her twenties. "At first I didn't know what was happening. I thought, am I having panic attack?" she said. "I felt like perhaps at some point when I'd get it quite badly, I thought I might die." Children whose mothers have asthma are more likely to develop the condition themselves, but Rosser's son is asthma-free. "They [the researchers] said that his breathing capabilities and his lung capacity and function and functionality was extremely good," she explained. "And that he definitely had no signs of being asthmatic at all." When Rosser was pregnant with her son 10 years ago, she was part of a trial run by the Hunter Medical Research Institute and the University of Newcastle, looking at asthma management during pregnancy. "Asthma in pregnancy affects around 10–12 per cent of pregnant women in Australia," Vanessa Murphy, one of the study's key researchers from the University of Newcastle, said. "And I don't think we take that seriously enough because it can have major impacts on the health of both the mother and the baby. The researchers gave one group a traditional asthma management plan, so expectant mums were medicated based on their symptoms, such as coughing or wheezing. Rosser was put in the second group. "What we tested was a strategy where we measured lung inflammation, using a simple breath test, and we used the results of the breath test to determine how much medication the woman should be using and we adjusted her medication each month," Dr Murphy said. "What we found was this approach significantly reduced the rate of asthma attacks in pregnancy by half. "And what we've done in this study is followed up the children when they were four to six years old, and looked at how many of them had asthma and we find again, almost a 50 per cent reduction in doctor-diagnosed asthma in pre-school aged children." The study also found that for those children who did develop asthma, they presented less often to emergency departments for asthma attacks and needed less medication to relieve their symptoms. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | The Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life charity The companies inform that the May beneficiary of The Power of One Dram is the “Road of Life” charitable organization. Ucom General Director gives lecture at French University in Armenia The General Director of Ucom Ralph Yirikian delivered a lecture at the French University of Armenia. Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. |