VOLUME 6 NUMBER 2 (July to December 2013)

by Maricar W. Ching^1,4*, Jennifer Maries G. Yap^1,4, Kevin Carl P. Santos⁵,Cesar M. Ong⁶, and John Donnie A. Ramos^1,2,3

¹The Graduate School,
²Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science,
³Research Center for the Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Santo Tomas, Manila,
 Philippines;
⁴Biological Sciences Department, Centro Escolar University, Manila, Philippines;
⁵School of Statistics, University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines;
⁶Philippine Children Medical Center, Quezon City, Philippines

The severity of asthma is influenced by multiple factorsincluding absolute eosinophil count, total IgE andspecific IgE resulting from sensitization to variousallergens such as those from the house dust mitespecies, Blomia tropicalis (Bt), Dermatophagoidespteronyssinus (Dp), and Dermatophagoides farinae (Df). Anobservational-analytical, case-control method was used to examine250 age- and sex-matched allergic asthma and non-asthmaticcontrols. Total serum IgE and HDM-specific IgE were determinedusing ELISA, while complete blood count using automatedCoulter Counter was used to obtain the absolute eosinophilcount. Log-transformed data were statistically analyzed forcorrelation. Significantly elevated levels of total IgE (p<0.0001),HDM-specific IgE (p<0.0001) and absolute eosinophil count(p<0.0001) were observed in allergic asthma cases compared tonon-asthmatic controls. Patients with allergy, regardless of atopystatus, and patients with allergic asthma concurrent with allergicrhinitis, showed significant correlation between Df-specific IgEand absolute eosinophil count (p=0.03). Moreover, significantcorrelation was observed between Dp-specific IgE and absoluteeosinophil counts in allergic asthmatics concurrently with allergicrhinitis and atopic dermatitis (p=0.003). Multiple regressionanalyses showed that an increase in Dp-specific IgE will yieldan expected increase in absolute eosinophil count holding othervariables constant among allergic asthmatics, concurrentlysuffering with allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis (p=0.009).HDM-specific IgE, particularly Dp- and Df-specific IgE, issignificantly correlated with and contributing to the absoluteeosinophil count in allergic asthma among selected population ofpediatric patients in the Philippines.