A new study suggests saline solution rinses may lead to sinus infection.

A new study finds that rinsing sinuses with saline solution to relieve congestion or inflammation, may make you more prone to sinus infections, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The study found that among 68 people who irrigated their sinuses at least twice a day for a year, sinus infections decreased by 62 percent once they stopped irrigation.

“By washing the nose, we are removing the bad mucus but, unfortunately, we are also removing the good mucus that contains the antimicrobial agents as well,” Dr. Talal Nsouli, lead author of new research on the issue, told the newspaper. “And, by depleting the nose of its immune elements, we expose the patient to more sinus infections.”

The jury, however, seems to be out. Other experts disagreed with Nsouli’s conclusion arguing that the removal of the mucus is only temporary. “I totally, wholeheartedly disagree with the article,” Dr. Jordan S. Josephson, a sinus specialist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and author of Sinus Relief Now, told the paper. “I think irrigation is a marvelous thing.”

The asthma medication albuterol, also known as salbutamol and ventolin, could prove ineffective for as many as 100,000 British kids who carry a gene prevents the medication from working when used on a daily basis, found a study published October 6 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

“This is a global question that needs to be addressed,” lead researcher Somnath Mukhopadhyay, of Brighton and Sussex Medical School, told Reuters news service.

Albuterol is found in GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair and Serevent inhalers. Glaxo has said that its studies have found no gene-based variations in responses to the popular blue inhaler medication, but the FDA has cautioned that Advair and Serevent could worsen asthma in some children.

The researchers found that asthmatics between the age of 3 and 22 years old who carried a gene variant known as Arg16 and used an albuterol inhaler on a daily basis, were at 30 percent greater risk of asthma attacks that people without the variant.

The researchers estimated that 100,000 of the 1 million children in the United Kingdom who have asthma carry the Arg16 gene. They said the findings raises questions of whether a genetic test should be developed to determine which children may respond poorly to using albuterol inhalers.

The study was conducted by the Inner City Asthma Consortium (ICAC), a nationwide network of clinical researchers supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. ICAC member Rebecca Gruchalla, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, led the study. Additional support for the research was provided by the NIH National Center for Research Resources.

The 46-week study included 546 adolescents and young adults (ages 12 to 20 years old) in 10 cities across the United States.  At the start of the study, ICAC investigators gathered baseline data by conducting standard tests to assess asthma symptoms. An additional battery of tests evaluated lung inflammation, lung function and allergic status. The participants were then seen every 6 to 8 weeks at their respective ICAC centers, where they were they were treated for asthma based on NIH guidelines developed by the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program. During the study, the participants carefully adhered to their treatment regimens.

After the study was completed, the investigators analyzed the baseline measurements to determine if any of these assessments, alone or in combination, could predict future asthma symptoms or asthma attacks. The investigators observed no significant clinical correlations between these common laboratory test measurements and asthma exacerbations among the study participants.

This large, longitudinal study provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of a number of factors previously thought to be useful in predicting future asthma attacks. Based on a population of patients who followed their treatment and had well-controlled asthma, the results indicate clearly that there are no known common biological markers that can predict the course of the disease in such individuals.  Further studies will be needed to identify possible predictive markers.

Citation: R Gruchalla et al. Asthma morbidity among inner-city adolescents receiving guidelines-based therapy: role of predictors in the setting of high adherence. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2009.05.036e (2009).

Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)