Active clinical trials for "Asthma"

Objective: Identify modifiable factors that may affect asthma control and the use of emergency room to define customized interventions for the management of asthma prior to emergency room. Emergency department attendance is always a sign of poor balance or control of asthma. In spite of a decrease in the number of deaths that has been halved in 20 years and hospitalization due to asthmatic disease, the use of emergency center for this disease has not decreased. We now know that the passage through emergencies and hospitalization for aggravation of asthma is in itself a factor of mortality. Acting on the determinants of poor balance or control of asthma is essential to further reduce the mortality and morbidity of asthma.

This study is a prospective observational multicentre cohort study of asthma patients in Eastern Africa whose objectives will be; The primary objective of this project is to identify and characterize severe asthma in Eastern Africa in order to understand its demographic, clinical, physiologic, pathologic, genomic and immunologic determinants. Secondary objective(s) are; Compare the annual healthcare utilisation (HCU) (emergency room visits, hospitalization including admission to critical care units and unscheduled outpatient clinic or office visits), exacerbation, quality of life and mortality rates of severe and not- severe asthma patients Determine the factors associated with the asthma HCU events, quality of life, exacerbations and mortality The study will enroll 1676 patients aged between 12 and 70 years and follow up each patient for up to one year.

Asthma is a chronic disease. Prevalence of asthma in 2014 among Spanish population was 5%, of which 10% were diagnosed with severe asthma. According to Spanish National Guideline for the Management of Asthma (GEMA) 4.1 criteria, asthma can be classified according to its severity (intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent or severe persistent) or level of asthma control (controlled, partly controlled or uncontrolled). This Guideline describes that only 1 in 10 subjects with severe asthma is well controlled, meaning that there is a 90% prevalence of non-controlled severe asthma. This prospective, non-interventional, observational, multicenter and case-control study aims to assess the prevalence of severe asthma in Spanish Hospitals. The study will describe the characteristics of severe versus non-severe asthmatic subjects, assess their eligibility to receive biological treatments approved for this disease, resource consumption and evaluate the most prevalent phenotypes of severe asthma in Spain. Enrolled subjects will be divided into two cohorts, based on asthma severity according to the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) and the International European Respiratory Society (ERS)/American Thoracic Society (ATS) Guidelines. Cohort A: subjects diagnosed of severe asthma and Cohort B: subjects with non-severe asthma. Approximately 320 severe asthmatic subjects and 160 non-severe asthmatic subjects will be enrolled in the study. A software of big data will be used to do a sub study for comparing the results obtained through this software tool against results obtained through Gold standard classical methods used in this prospective observational study (the descriptive assessment of severe asthma prevalence and the prospective evolution of subjects).

The overall purpose of the study is to compare the patterns of neurocircuitry activation in severe asthmatics vs. mild to moderate and healthy controls. The Investigators hypothesize that neurocircuitry activation increases with asthma severity, producing different neurocircuitry patterns for severe asthmatics than those of mild to moderate asthmatics or non-asthmatics.

What are the capacity and training needs in general practice to implement routine spirometry and eNO testing in children aged 5-16 years? Asthma is the commonest long-term disease of childhood in the United Kingdom (UK). Under-diagnosis and under-treatment of childhood asthma in general practice (GP) have been reported from several European countries including the UK. This can result in poor symptom control and increased risk of asthma related deaths. It has been suggested that both under- and over- diagnosis of childhood asthma in general practice could be improved by routinely using objective lung function testing for diagnosis and monitoring. The proposed objective lung function tests (spirometry and exhaled nitric oxide measurements - eNO) are already used routinely in UK hospitals, but are not usually available in general practice where most children are cared for. Why is it important? - Availability of these tests will help health professionals in general practice to look after children with asthma better, and hopefully improve asthma control. What will this study achieve? - Though it is believed that providing spirometry and eNO in general practice would be beneficial, there is little data on how this can be achieved. This study will employ both qualitative and quantitative measures in order to evaluate the resources required to implement routine spirometry and eNO testing for children in primary care; and to investigate the impact this would have on diagnosis in children with suspected asthma. How? - The investigators will work with general practices in and around Leicestershire, UK. Firstly, to identify what the barriers are to implementing these tests, and secondly to train the practices to perform and interpret spirometry and eNO independently in children. Children with suspected or previously diagnosed asthma will be invited for review and lung function testing. The investigators will record the time it takes to train general practices to perform and interpret spirometry and eNO independently, and the additional clinic capacity required to provide these tests.

The purpose of this study is to characterize adult subjects regarding their history of allergy and asthma, clinical manifestations of asthma, and exposures and conditions that may influence asthma severity and control. Assessments include baseline medical history, lung function tests, questionnaires, and collection of specimens for phenotypic characterization.

Asthma is a growing problem, especially in children. It causes frequent wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and cough. A cold that is caused by a virus (viral cold) can sometimes make asthma symptoms worse. This study will help investigators learn about the way colds are related to asthma attacks among children who need higher amounts of medications to control their asthma. Investigators want to learn why viral colds sometimes cause asthma attacks and other times do not by studying the immune system response in samples taken from the nose and blood.

This study is designed to characterize subjects in terms of their sputum phenotype. The purpose of this study is to learn more about the impact of having abnormally elastic sputum on asthma severity by comparing subjects with severe as well as mild/moderate asthma to healthy controls. The characterization will include medical history, pulmonary function testing, imaging of the lungs and biospecimen collection.

Polymorphism at codon 16 of the beta2-adrenoceptor (beta2-AR) affects the responsiveness to salmeterol in asthmatics. Data concerning formoterol are more controversial in literature. The aim of this study was to verify whether homozygote for arginine-16 (ArgArg16) and homozygote for glycine-16 (GlyGly16) genotypes differently influence the long-term responsiveness to formoterol.

The NOVEL Observational longiTudinal studY (NOVELTY) is an observational study of obstructive lung disease and is a multi-country, multi-centre, prospective, longitudinal cohort study which will recruit patients with a diagnosis, or suspected diagnosis, of asthma and/or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Patients will undergo clinical assessments and receive standard medical care as determined by their treating physician. Patients enrolled in NOVELTY will be followed up yearly by their treating physician for a total duration of three years. In addition, patients will be followed up remotely every 3 months. The NOVELTY study will collect data currently lacking to allow for multinational data collection to fill regional/local gaps and improve comparability across regions.