Abstract
To the Editor: A number of studies have shown that the quantities of dog, cat, and house dust mite (HDM) allergens recovered from synthetic pillows are significantly greater than the quantities recovered from feather pillows. 1-3 This might be of relevance to atopic asthmatic patients because of the proximity of a pillow to the airway during sleep, inasmuch as asthma severity has been demonstrated to be associated with upper bedding HDM allergen levels. 4 Exposure to endotoxin, a pro-inflammatory component of the cell wall of gram- negative bacteria, is a determinant of asthma severity in HDM-sensitized patients.5 We therefore measured endotoxin recovered from synthetic and feather pillows.