Journal of Asthma and Allergy (May 2016)
United airway disease: current perspectives
Abstract
Pedro Giavina-Bianchi,* Marcelo Vivolo Aun,* Priscila Takejima, Jorge Kalil, Rosana Câmara Agondi Clinical Immunology and Allergy Division, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil*These authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract: Upper and lower airways are considered a unified morphological and functional unit, and the connection existing between them has been observed for many years, both in health and in disease. There is strong epidemiologic, pathophysiologic, and clinical evidence supporting an integrated view of rhinitis and asthma: united airway disease in the present review. The term “united airway disease” is opportune, because rhinitis and asthma are chronic inflammatory diseases of the upper and lower airways, which can be induced by allergic or nonallergic reproducible mechanisms, and present several phenotypes. Management of rhinitis and asthma must be jointly carried out, leading to better control of both diseases, and the lessons of the Allergic Rhinitis and Its Impact on Asthma initiative cannot be forgotten. Keywords: ARIA, united airway disease, rhinitis, asthma, allergy, atopy, immediate hypersensitivity reaction, guideline