Table 3. Avoidance of exposure: characteristics and results of studies published between 2004 and 2010.

First author [ref.]	Country	Agent	Study design	Duration of FU months	Symptom recovery n/N	Recovery of NSBHR n/N
Brant [34]	UK	Enzymes	Workforce-based survey of 35 out of 45 cases	37 (4–39)	5/35	NA
Klusackova [35]	Czech Republic	Various	Longitudinal FU of 37 cases (selection not stated) Clinic-based study	78 (12–216)	5/37	1/19
Labrecque [36]	Canada	Isocyanates	Retrospective cohort study of compensated subjects (89 randomly selected subjects)	∼24 for all subjects	4/79¶	10/79
Park [38]	Korea	Reactive dyes	Longitudinal FU of 26 cases (selection not stated) Clinic-based study	Second visit: 104±22 (n=19)	NA	11/16
Park [37]	Korea	Reactive dyes	Longitudinal FU of 11 cases (selection not stated) Clinic-based study	164±28	0/11	3/11
Pisati [39]	Italy	Isocyanates	Longitudinal FU of 53 cases (selection of 25 patients rechallenged with TDI) Clinic-based study	58±7 (46–73)	10/25	12/25
Yacoub [40]	Canada	Various	Retrospective cohort study of 40 compensated subjects	44±34	6/40	10/40
Munoz [41]	Spain	Persulfate salts	Prospective longitudinal FU of 10 out of 11 cases Clinic-based study	63±19 (39–101)	2/7	5/7
Pooled estimates#					32/234, 15.5%¶ (8.3–27.1%)	52/197, 32.8% (16.8–54.3%)

Data for individual studies are presented as mean (range), mean±sd or mean±sd (range), unless otherwise stated. Pooled estimates are presented as n/N with % (95% CI). FU: follow-up; NSBHR: nonspecific bronchial hyperresponsiveness; NA: not available; TDI: toluene diisocyanate. ^#: pooled estimates based on a random-effect model; ^¶: the rate of symptom recovery was 19.2% (28 out of 155 subjects; 95% CI 11.2–30.9%) after exclusion of the study by Labrecque et al. [36], which used more stringent criteria of “clinical remission” defined by the absence of symptoms, NSBHR and medication.