Skin Testing in Asthmatics Treated With Omalizumab
In patients you are considering treating with omalizumab for moderate to severe asthma, do you have to do skin testing or are total and specific allergen IgE levels sufficient?
Samuel DeLeon, MD
Omalizumab (Xolair) is the first monoclonal antibody to be used in the treatment of asthma. It is a very expensive therapy and should be saved for asthmatic patients who are moderate to severe and are not well controlled or are controlled on exceedingly high doses of asthma medication or need chronic oral corticosteroids. What is needed to have third party payors reimburse for this therapy are:
The amount of omalizumab given to a patient is based on weight and IgE level. Thus, if the patient is markedly overweight or has a very high IgE level, it would take too much omalizumab to be efficacious. Thus, we have the cutoff at an IgE level of 700.
In patients you are considering treating with omalizumab for moderate to severe asthma, do you have to do skin testing or are total and specific allergen IgE levels sufficient?
Samuel DeLeon, MD
Omalizumab (Xolair) is the first monoclonal antibody to be used in the treatment of asthma. It is a very expensive therapy and should be saved for asthmatic patients who are moderate to severe and are not well controlled or are controlled on exceedingly high doses of asthma medication or need chronic oral corticosteroids. What is needed to have third party payors reimburse for this therapy are:
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The amount of omalizumab given to a patient is based on weight and IgE level. Thus, if the patient is markedly overweight or has a very high IgE level, it would take too much omalizumab to be efficacious. Thus, we have the cutoff at an IgE level of 700.
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