Skip to main content

Histamine Pharmacodynamic Biomarker to Guide Treatment in Pediatric Asthma

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood. We know a lot about how to treat asthma, but there are still many children who continue to have daily symptoms that limit their ability to play, learn, and to live a normal life without disruption from their asthma. We need better ways to determine which medications may work best for each individual child with asthma. The goal of this study is to determine if adding a regularly used allergy medicine to the asthma treatment regimen improves asthma symptoms. We also will study whether a device (Histamine Iontophoresis with Laser Doppler monitoring) that painlessly measures blood flow in the arm can predict if the allergy medicine works in improving asthma for individual children.

  • Children ages 6-17 years

  • Diagnosed with asthma

  • African-American/Black or Caucasian/White

The study lasts about 17 weeks where you will make five different visits to Children’s Mercy Kansas City. During the study, your child will have blood draws, allergy testing, and breathing tests. Parents and children will also be asked to fill out some surveys. During the study children will be asked to take a study medication and an IV will be placed to draw blood for part of the study. The child will receive compensation for participation.

For more information about this study, please contact the study team at Children’s Mercy at HILDAStudyTeam@cmh.edu or (816) 960-8904.

If you would like to provide your information for us to contact you and tell you more about the study, please use the following link Histamine Asthma Study Interest Form or access our database with the following QR code:

 

 

FAQs for Patients and Families

This study would involve your child taking an allergy medication and a placebo for about six weeks each time. Your child would have five research visits at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Below is a timeline to help you see how all these visits fit together.

Study Procedure Screening Visit 1 Visit 2 (includes blood draw the next
day)
Visit 3 Visit 4 (includes blood draw the next
day)
Study Day After pre-
screening call
2 weeks after
Screening Visit
6 weeks after
Visit 1
2 weeks after
Visit 2
6 weeks after
Visit 3
Estimated Visit
Duration
3 hours 3 hours 14 hours 3 hours 14 hours

Yes. To participate in this study, your child can continue his or her other asthma medications. However, you may discuss with your child’s doctor about participating in the study.

We are happy to work with you to try to minimize any disruptions and to schedule visits on days when school is not in session.

The first research visit will be your screening visit and will last about 1-2 hours. After that there are two visits that will last up to four hours and two visits that will last about 14 hours with a visit the day after to draw blood (See table in "What would happen if my child took part in the study?" answer)

There is no extra cost for being in this study.

Your child will have blood drawn at four of the research visits. Even though there are multiple blood draws at the long research visit days (14 hour days), your child will mostly likely only have one needlestick. A nurse will insert an intravenous catheter (IV) into your child’s arm to easily and painlessly draw a small amount of blood throughout the day.

Yes, your child will receive compensation for their time participating in the study.

Research Study Team:

You may also see other study team members at times.

* Research is always voluntary.

For more information about this study, please contact the study team at Children’s Mercy at HILDAStudyTeam@cmh.edu or (816) 960-8904.

If you would like to provide your information for us to contact you and tell you more about the study, please use the following link Histamine Asthma Study Interest Form or access our database with the following QR code: