Children's Hospital Researchers Study Asthma In Pittsburgh

POSTED: 5:50 pm EDT July 30, 2008

PITTSBURGH -- Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh is one of only two sites in the nation on the front lines of battling severe asthma.

Experts want to understand why kids who are severe asthmatics don't respond to treatment.

In the United States, 22.2 million people have been diagnosed with asthma -- and 6.5 million of those were under the age of 18.

On hazy, humid days -- especially an Air Quality Action Day -- it can be very difficult for someone with asthma to breathe. They can suffer from wheezing and tightness in the chest.

At Children's Hospital, they're taking the research one step further by targeting a group that suffers these same conditions and sometimes worse -- and medicine doesn't always help them.

"He's very active in the marching band and in running and cross country and track," said Tracy Casturo, mother of an asthmatic teen. "It's been very difficult. He gets chest pains, shortness of breath."

Casturo's son, Robert, responds well to medication, but others with more severe asthma aren't so lucky.

"They're on a lot of high doses of medications, and some of these medications aren't benign," said Dr. Shean Aujla, of Children's Hospital. "They have side effects to them, so it's a lot of burden on families and schools and hospitals. A lot of the more severe asthmatics also have a lot of allergies."

Environment can also play a big role, doctors say, and they will include that in their newly funded study on severe asthma.

"What's going to be interesting is looking at air quality in Pittsburgh and the environment to see, 'Oh, look, all of our severe asthmatic kids are urban kids who live in the city,' versus, mild-to-moderates are more likely to live an hour or two away where there's not as much traffic pollution," Aujla said.

Researchers at Children's are still looking for between 50 and 60 more patients. They'll pay you if your child takes part in this study.

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