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Clinical management and outcome of refractory asthma in the UK from the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Registry.

ABSTRACT: Refractory asthma represents a significant unmet clinical need. Data from a national online registry audited clinical outcome in 349 adults with refractory asthma from four UK specialist centres in the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Network. At follow-up, lung function improved, with a reduction in important healthcare outcomes, specifically hospital admission, unscheduled healthcare visits and rescue courses of oral steroids. The most frequent therapeutic intervention was maintenance oral corticosteroids and most steroid sparing agents (apart from omalizumab) demonstrated minimal steroid sparing benefit. A significant unmet clinical need remains in this group, specifically a requirement for therapies which reduce systemic steroid exposure.

SUBMITTER: Sweeney J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3402747 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Clinical management and outcome of refractory asthma in the UK from the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Registry.

Sweeney Joan J Brightling Chris E CE Menzies-Gow Andrew A Niven Robert R Patterson Chris C CC Heaney Liam G LG

Thorax 20120511 8

Refractory asthma represents a significant unmet clinical need. Data from a national online registry audited clinical outcome in 349 adults with refractory asthma from four UK specialist centres in the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Network. At follow-up, lung function improved, with a reduction in important healthcare outcomes, specifically hospital admission, unscheduled healthcare visits and rescue courses of oral steroids. The most frequent therapeutic intervention was maintenance ...[more]

PMID: 22581823

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Project description:BackgroundAsthma severity is typically assessed through a retrospective assessment of the treatment required to control symptoms and to prevent exacerbations. The joint British Thoracic Society and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (BTS/SIGN) guidelines encourage a stepwise approach to pharmacotherapy, and as such, current treatment step can be considered as a severity categorisation proxy. Briefly, the steps for adults can be summarised as: no controller therapy (Step 0), low-strength Inhaled Corticosteroids (ICS; Step 1), ICS plus Long-Acting Beta-2 Agonist (LABA; Step 2), medium-dose ICS + LABA (Step 3), and finally either an increase in strength or additional therapies (Step 4). This study aimed to investigate how BTS/SIGN Steps can be estimated from across a large cohort using electronic prescription records, and to describe the incidence of each BTS/SIGN Step in a general population.MethodsThere were 41,433,707 prescriptions, for 671,304 individuals, in the Asthma Learning Health System Scottish cohort, between 1/2009 and 3/2017. Days on which an individual had a prescription for at least one asthma controller (preventer) medication were labelled prescription events. A rule-based algorithm was developed for extracting the strength and volume of medication instructed to be taken daily from free-text data fields. Asthma treatment regimens were categorised by the combination of medications prescribed in the 120 days preceding any prescription event and categorised into BTS/SIGN treatment steps.ResultsAlmost 4.5 million ALHS prescriptions were for asthma controllers. 26% of prescription events had no inhaled corticosteroid prescriptions in the preceding 120 days (Step 0), 16% were assigned to BTS/SIGN Step 1, 7% to Step 2, 21% to Step 3, and 30% to Step 4. The median days spent on a treatment step before a step-down in treatment was 297 days, whereas a step-up only took a median of 134 days.ConclusionWe developed a reproducible methodology enabling researchers to estimate BTS/SIGN asthma treatment steps in population health studies, providing valuable insights into population and patient-specific trajectories, towards improving the management of asthma.

Project description:BackgroundIn 2010, the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS) published a Consensus Summary for the diagnosis and management of asthma in children six years of age and older, and adults, including an updated Asthma Management Continuum. The CTS Asthma Clinical Assembly subsequently began a formal clinical practice guideline update process, focusing, in this first iteration, on topics of controversy and⁄or gaps in the previous guidelines.MethodsFour clinical questions were identified as a focus for the updated guideline: the role of noninvasive measurements of airway inflammation for the adjustment of anti-inflammatory therapy; the initiation of adjunct therapy to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) for uncontrolled asthma; the role of a single inhaler of an ICS⁄long-acting beta(2)-agonist combination as a reliever, and as a reliever and a controller; and the escalation of controller medication for acute loss of asthma control as part of a self-management action plan. The expert panel followed an adaptation process to identify and appraise existing guidelines on the specified topics. In addition, literature searches were performed to identify relevant systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials. The panel formally assessed and graded the evidence, and made 34 recommendations.ResultsThe updated guideline recommendations outline a role for inclusion of assessment of sputum eosinophils, in addition to standard measures of asthma control, to guide adjustment of controller therapy in adults with moderate to severe asthma. Appraisal of the evidence regarding which adjunct controller therapy to add to ICS and at what ICS dose to begin adjunct therapy in children and adults with poor asthma control supported the 2010 CTS Consensus Summary recommendations. New recommendations for the adjustment of controller medication within written action plans are provided. Finally, priority areas for future research were identified.ConclusionsThe present clinical practice guideline is the first update of the CTS Asthma Guidelines following the Canadian Respiratory Guidelines Committee's new guideline development process. Tools and strategies to support guideline implementation will be developed and the CTS will continue to regularly provide updates reflecting new evidence.

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Clinical management and outcome of refractory asthma in the UK from the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Registry.

Publications

Clinical management and outcome of refractory asthma in the UK from the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Registry.

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