By Liam Davenport

01 October 2007

J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007; Advance online publication

MedWire News: Around half of asthma cases in the general population are due to atopy, and almost a third of these are due to cat allergy, report US scientists who say that the prevention or reversal of atopy could substantially reduce the burden of asthma.

Atopy, which is defined as a propensity to develop immunoglobulin E antibodies in response to allergen exposure, is a known risk factor for asthma. However, it is not clear how many asthma cases are attributable to atopy.

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