New air filter improves symptoms for asthma sufferers

A new air filter and purifier could dramatically reduce the symptoms asthma sufferers have to live with on a daily basis, a study has found.

The temperature controlled laminar airflow treatment (TLA), known as Protexo, works while people are asleep to cleanse the air of asthma triggers.

This then alleviates typical symptoms those with asthma suffer from every day; namely wheezing, coughing and tight chests.

A study of the air filter machine found that asthmatics that used it had a better quality of life by those who didn’t, and this was estimated to be a 15 percent increase.

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Protexo works by directing a cool airflow over someone as they sleep, which displaces the warmer, room-temperature air containing the common asthma triggers – dust mites and pet hair – therefore preventing them from inhaling the allergens.

Health experts are now calling for the device to be made available through national health services.

Priced at £4,000, they are arguing that the machine is relatively cheap.

They also believe its use would make hospital stays for asthmatics for shorter and would reduce their reliance on drugs to manage their condition, thus effectively paying for itself.

The study of Protexo was led by Professor John Warner, a professor and paediatrician at Imperial College London and St Mary’s Hospital respectively.

Commenting on the results, he said: “This device makes a significant difference to people's lives, with an effect as big as very expensive treatments, and it helps prevent the triggers of the disease.

“Our findings support the importance of focusing exposure control interventions on the breathing zone, and highlight the role of nocturnal exposures in precipitating airway inflammation and symptoms in patients with atopic asthma.”

He added: “The reason nocturnal TLA is successful where so many other approaches have failed may be the profound reduction in inhaled aeroallergen exposure, which this treatment achieves.”

More information and the results of the study have been published in Thorax, an online journal.

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