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

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Chest clinic
Audit update
Clinical management and outcome of refractory asthma in the UK from the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Registry
  1. Joan Sweeney1,
  2. Chris E Brightling2,
  3. Andrew Menzies-Gow3,
  4. Robert Niven4,
  5. Chris C Patterson5,
  6. Liam G Heaney1,
  7. on behalf of the British Thoracic Society Difficult Asthma Network
  1. 1Centre for Infection and Immunity, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, UK
  2. 2Institute for Lung Health, Department of Infection, Inflammation and Immunity, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
  3. 3Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  4. 4The University of Manchester (MAHSC) and University Hospital of South Manchester, UK
  5. 5Centre for Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Liam G Heaney, Centre for Infection and Immunity, Queen's University of Belfast, Level 8, Belfast City Hospital, Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7AB, UK; l.heaney{at}qub.ac.uk

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.

  • Refractory asthma
  • national registry
  • clinical assessment and outcome
  • asthma phenotypes
  • asthma
  • asthma epidemiology
  • asthma guidelines
  • allergic lung disease
  • eosinophil biology
  • occupational lung disease
  • airway epithelium
  • asthma mechanisms
  • asthma pharmacology
  • COPD epidemiology
  • COPD exacerbations

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.

https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2012-201869

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    Footnotes

    • Funding Pilot funding for the Registry was provided as unrestricted research grants from Astra Zeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Medimmune. Sweeney is supported by HSC R&D (NI) and GlaxoSmithKline (PhD studentship). CB is supported by a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellowship.

    • Competing interests Ms Sweeney is supported by HSC R&D (NI) and GlaxoSmithKline (PhD studentship funding). Professor Brightling is supported by a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellowship and has received consultancy fees and or research funding from GlaxoSmithKline, AZ, MedImmune, Amgen, Novartis, Chiesi, BI and Roche. Dr Menzies-Gow has attended advisory boards for Novartis and Genentech. He has received sponsorship to attend international meetings from GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Boeringer Ingelheim. He has received lecture fees from Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Astra Zeneca and Chiesi. Dr Niven has received an unrestricted grant of £10 000 from Novartis in 2010 towards development of clinical services at the University Hospital of South Manchester. In addition he has lectured in the field of severe allergic asthma at Novartis-sponsored meetings receiving honoraria in total not exceeding £5000 in the last 3 years. Dr Niven has also performed lecturing at pharmaceutically sponsored meetings for the following pharmaceutical companies in the last 3 years: Astra Zeneca (<£1000), GlaxoSmithKline (<£5000) and Chiesi (<£1000). He has sat on advisory boards for the following companies in the last 3 years: Vectura, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, receiving reimbursement not exceeding £1000. He has received sponsorship support to attend international academic meetings. Dr Niven (or any members of his family) has no shares or any percuniary interest in any pharmaceutical industry and has nothing to gain financially from the publication of this paper. Dr C Patterson's spouse holds shares in GlaxoSmithKline. Professor Heaney has received grant funding from Genentech, and GlaxoSmithKline, has taken part in Advisory Boards and given lectures at meetings supported by GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Nycomed, Novartis and Astra Zeneca. He has received support funding to attend International Respiratory meetings (Astra Zeneca, Chiesi, Novartis, Teva and GlaxoSmithKline) and has taken part in asthma clinical trials (GSK and Genentech) for which his Institution was remunerated. None of these activities have any direct relationship to the content of this manuscript.

    • Ethics approval Ethics approval was provided by ORECNI.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.