Asthma Health Home>>Asthma>>Health news Written by: QMI Agency Jun. 29, 2013 A child uses an inhaler. Image from Fotolia

A genetic test might be able to predict whether children with asthma are likely to grow out of it by the time they become adults, new research says.

The study, led by researchers from Duke University in North Carolina, was published Friday in the online issue of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

The researchers say they looked at the results of a huge genetic study of asthma, drafted a profile of asthma risk genes and tested it against a leading asthma research database of individuals that have been followed from birth to their 30's.

The team says individuals who had the highest genetic risk scores were the ones most likely to develop asthma, developed it earlier, and tended to have more severe asthma.

Another important result from the study was that "the genetic risk profile was able to give more information about asthma risk than you could get from looking at family history of the disease," the researchers said.

They emphasized that although the study shows it is possible to use a genetic risk profile to predict which children with asthma will grow out of it and which will have the persistent form of the disease, "more work needs to be done before it can be used with patients."

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Genetic test may predict who'll outgrow asthma

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