Adventures of an Allergist Mommy

Ever wish there was an alternative to injections for emergency delivery of epinephrine for anaphylaxis? There is a research study underway assessing the use of a nasal epinephrine spray for allergic recations, and healthy adult volunteers are needed! Celerion is seeking healthy adult males and females to participate in a research study for the development of an Epinephrine nasal spray for use as an emergency treatment for allergic reactions. STUDY DETAILS: Healthy Adults Ages 19-65 One 4-night stay at Celerion Earn up to $3,000 for participation HelpResearch.com/NasalSpray 866-213-2965

I am proud to be from Illinois, where we already have excellent guidelines in place for the protection of food allergic children, and also have a stock epinephrine law on the books. I am also so pleased that my state's U.S. Senators have teamed up to co-sponsor a bipartisan bill designed to keep the children of America safe from severe allergic reactions. Read on to learn more! Courtesy of the Allergy and Asthma Network - Mothers of Asthmatics : Your Chance to Weigh In On Stock Epinephrine Legislation The School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, which would encourage states to require that schools keep lifesaving epinephrine on hand, is now in front of the U.S. Senate, bringing it one step closer to passage. You can make a difference by contacting your Senators today to ask for their support. S. 1503 was introduced by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and co-sponsored by 23 other senators. The companion bill, sponsored by Rep. Phil Roe, MD ...

The following message is courtesy of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. A formerly available epinephrine auto-injector (Adrenaclick) is back on the market, as is an authorized generic for this specific device. It is likely that insurance companies and pharmacies may encourage substitution with this generic product, as a way to decrease expenses for both insurers and patients. Please read the message, and be alert to the possibility of device substitution. _________________________________________ Be Aware of Authorized Generic Epinephrine Autoinjector Dear Colleagues: It has come to our attention that Lineage Therapeutics, Inc. recently launched an authorized generic version of Adrenaclick® under the name  epinephrine injection, USP auto-injector . This product being marketed as a generic epinephrine autoinjector is an “authorized generic” of the Adrenaclick autoinjector only. We want to make you aware because the availability of this product ma...

Conventional wisdom has always been to "count to ten" when administering an epinephrine autoinjector, so as to allow the medication enough time to be adequately delivered into the muscle. However, in practice, ten seconds can seem like an eternity when attempting to hold a little one still. Many parents worry that if they don't follow the "ten second rule", their squirmy kid will not receive enough life-saving medication to avert an allergic disaster. Well, here's some good news: a recent study evaluating various EpiPen injection times has determined that even with an injection time as short as 1 second, over 95% of epinephrine was absorbed into muscle. ( Baker TW, Webber CM, Stolfi A, Gonzalez-Reyes E:  The TEN study: time epinephrine needs to reach muscle.  Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2011;107:235-238. ) No little children were used as pincushions in the course of this study. Instead, the researchers used marbelized beef as a proxy for human thigh...

Have an expired epinephrine autoinjector and don't know how to dispose of it properly? Here's an opportunity to donate your expired medication to a good cause! AllergySense is collecting expired epinephrine autoinjectors for use as training devices at hospitals and clinics in the U.S. and Canada. As a thank you - for each autoinjector you donate, you'll be entered in a drawing for some nice prizes! Here's the link: http://www.allergysense.com/promo_epi.php