Allergic respiratory disease (ARD) includes patients with clinical manifestations of rhinoconjunctivitis and/or bronchial asthma of allergic etiology |
The optimal approach to ARD involves the simultaneous assessment of the upper and lower respiratory tract, irrespective of whether there are symptoms at a given time in a given patient |
The clinical features of patients with ARD depend (in part) on the allergen that caused the symptoms and the characteristics of the exposure |
The causative allergens of ARD must play a greater role in the choice of treatment |
Decisions on drug treatment in patients with ARD may be affected by the clinical severity of previous allergen exposures and not follow the phased strategy suggested by guidelines |
Allergen immunotherapy is a comprehensive etiological approach that can modify ARD. Failure of drug therapy is not a prerequisite for allergen immunotherapy in ARD patients |