New system for predicting asthma in children

New system for predicting asthma in children

Asthma researchers at Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research are developing a world first system for predicting the severity of asthma in young children.

A commercialisation agreement has just been signed by Institute spin-off company Advanced Diagnostic Systems with a major European diagnostic development company.

The system, being developed by research teams led by Professors Pat Holt and Peter Sly, will help doctors to more effectively tailor asthma treatments to suit individual children as young as 18 months.

"Up until now, theres been no way to tell which children will grow out of their asthma, and which need a more aggressive form of treatment to prevent the disease from developing to a serious level and persisting into the teen years," Professor Sly said.

"At the moment, all children are treated with powerful anti-asthma drugs and some children may be treated unnecessarily with the risk of unwarranted side effects and increased cost to the health system."

The system is being developed through analysis of asthma data from thousands of West Australian children which have been collected as part of ground breaking studies at TICHR. Professors Holt and Sly said that the large range of ongoing cohort studies within the Institute has provided unique opportunities to develop this predictive system which cannot be matched anywhere else in the world.

"This system is the culmination of many years work unlocking the risk factors that lead to some children developing chronic disease, while others outgrow asthma," Professor Holt said.

"To be effective in preventing the disease, we need to be able to determine at a very young age what course the disease is likely to take.

"What we've done is to identify some critical tests that, when combined, will paint a very accurate picture of a childs asthma pathway."

Prototypes of the new diagnostic system are planned to be trialled in major research hospitals within 2 to 3 years.

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