Perspectives and Management of Atypical Asthma
AsthmaTo evaluate the awareness/knowledge, clinical practice of atypical asthma among respiratory specialists and primary care practitioners (PCPs) in China.A total of 1166 respiratory specialists and 799 PCPs participated in the questionnaire survey via WeChat. The questionnaire included six major items, divided into physician demographic characteristics, awareness, diagnosis, medication prescription, assessment/education, and proposal.
Washington University Severe Asthma Research Program III
AsthmaThe overall goal of this proposal is to better understand the basis of airway remodeling in severe asthma and how remodeling changes over time. The investigators propose to study a well-characterized cohort of adult and pediatric subjects with severe asthma using a multidisciplinary state-of-the-art approach.
Metabolomic Analysis of Exhaled Breath Condensate in Asthmatics
AsthmaAsthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease. Significant heterogeneity exists in the clinical manifestations and treatment responses in these patients. Metabolomics is a large-scale approach to monitoring as many as possible of the compounds involved in cellular processes in a single assay to derive metabolic profiles. Compared with genomics or proteomics, metabolomics reflects changes in phenotype and therefore function. Up to now, few studies have evaluated the role of metabolomic analysis in the diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of airway disorders. Collection of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a newly developed, noninvasive method that may allow clinicians and researchers to assess biochemical profiles in the alveolar lining fluid. This study will apply metabolomics to examine the biomarkers in the EBCs, serum and urine specimens in adult asthmatics.
Prediction of Future Risk in Patients With Controlled Asthma
AsthmaThe optimal score to predict unfavourable outcome in well-controlled asthma patients who are undergoing a step-wise down-titration of their medication is still lacking. Thus, a study is warranted to prospectively develop a prognostic system -easy to perform (suitable for use in the clinical rather the research setting)- for asthmatic patients in this clinical setting. HYPOTHESIS: A simple score system can accurately predict clinical deterioration of asthma in well-controlled patients who are undergoing a step-wise down-titration of their medication according to international guidelines. METHODS The investigators designed a prospective, multicenter, observational study at five centers in cities across Spain. The patients group (N = 225) will be evaluated to produce a clinical prediction rule for loss of control. The investigators will consider the following variables in the risk factor analysis: documented history of previous bronchial obstruction (FEV1/FVC < 70%), coefficient of variation (CV) of morning peak expiratory flow (PEF), history of exacerbations, fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO), Asthma control test (ACT), ACT item 3 and adherence. The score model will be prospectively validated in an independent set of 113 patients.
The Status of Asthma in the Korean Military Personnel
AsthmaThe aim of this study is to evaluate the status of allergic diseases in the Korean military personnel.
Spirometric Response to Bronchial Thermoplasty in Patients With Severe Asthma
AsthmaThe investigators hypothesis is that there will be improvement in FEV1 in patients with severe asthma. This is a retrospective data study that reviews preexisting medical records; no patients will be enrolled.
B2 Adrenergic Receptor Gene Polymorphism in Bronchial Asthma
Gene AbnormalityAsthmaThe b2-adrenoceptor (b2AR) mediates the physiological responses in the airway, which include bronchodilation, bronchoprotection. The b2-adrenoceptor (b2AR) mediates the physiological responses in the airway, which include bronchodilation, bronchoprotection, Enhanced mucociliary clearance. The b2AR gene is located on chromosome 5q31-q32, a region that is genetically linked to asthma and related phenotypes. There are three best known polymorphisms in the coding region of the b2AR gene that can modulate the function of the receptor.
Epidemiology and Cytokines Analysis of Severe Asthma Patients in Taiwan
Bronchial AsthmaCytokinesSevere asthma is a heterogeneous disease characterized by the need for treatment with high doses of inhaled corticosteroids. It affects 5%-10% of asthmatic patients, although it accounts for a significant percentage of the consumption of health care resources. Severe asthma comprises various clinical and pathophysiological phenotypes. In this current study, we aimed to clinical characteristics and cytokes profile in severe asthma patients.
Unified Airway Model
Chronic Rhinosinusitis (Diagnosis)AsthmaChronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) impacts approximately 5% of Canadians. CRS patients suffer from a combination of symptoms that include facial pain, nasal obstruction, hyposmia and mucopurulence discharge. Asthma may additionally worsen quality of life and many patients suffer from both conditions. The unified airway model illustrates a link between both conditions as tissue from the middle ear to the sinus cavity to the lungs function as one unit. Despite evidence for the unified airway model in the setting of CRS and asthma, there are no studies to our knowledge that have evaluated the microbiome (the resident microbes and their genetic expressions that affect disease) of the upper and lower airways in this patient population. Determining the microbiome of the upper and lower airways in patients suffering from CRS and asthma will further support the unified airway model but more importantly, will help contribute to understanding the pathophysiology of this inflammatory process and may help guide future management.
Asthma: Phenotyping Exacerbations 2
ASTHMAThe main outcomes of this study are to establish a cohort of well-phenotyped asthma patients with a recent history of an exacerbation. We aim to describe exacerbation profiles (phenotypes) of the cohort in terms of inflammatory/biomarker profile and bacterial/viral infection status and to compare these with exacerbation events in the sister APEX cohort.