J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
September 2025
Background: Asthma with low levels of T2-biomarkers is poorly understood.
Objective: To characterize severe asthma phenotypes and compare pre- to post-biologic change in asthma outcomes along a gradient of T2-involvement.
Methods: This was a registry-based, cohort study including data from 24 countries.
Over the past 70 years, oral corticosteroids (OCS) have played an important role in the management of acute and chronic asthma; however, their use is associated with an increased incidence of adverse events, chronic diseases such as osteoporosis and diabetes, and mortality, as well as increased healthcare resource utilization and costs. Despite a consensus that the use of OCS should be minimized in asthma treatment strategies, many patients still routinely receive long-term or frequent short courses of OCS. Add-on biologics can help to improve asthma control in patients with severe asthma and evidence of type 2 inflammation; in clinical trials and real-world studies, both short- and long-term OCS-sparing effects have been demonstrated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorld Allergy Organ J
July 2025
Background: Asthma characterization using blood eosinophil count (BEC) (among other biomarkers and clinical indices) is recommended in severe asthma (SA), but the masking effect of oral corticosteroids (OCS), makes this challenging.
Aim: Our aim was to explore the effect of OCS use (both intermittent [iOCS] and long-term [LTOCS]) prior to biologic initiation on SA phenotype and biomarker profile in real-life and to characterize the burden of SA among patients prescribed LTOCS by biomarker profile.
Methods: This was a registry-based cohort study, including data from 23 countries collected between 2003 and 2023 and shared with the Internatonal Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR).
Background: Accurate risk prediction of exacerbations is pivotal in severe asthma management. Multiple risk factors are at play, but the pathway of risk prediction remains unclear.
Research Question: How do the interplays of clinically relevant predictors lead to severe exacerbations in patients with severe asthma?
Study Design And Methods: Patients with severe asthma (n = 6,814, aged ≥ 18 years), biologic naive, were identified from the Severe Asthma Registry (2017-2021).
Am J Respir Crit Care Med
July 2025
Although clinical trials have documented the oral corticosteroid (OCS)-sparing effect of biologics in patients with severe asthma, little is known about whether this translates to a reduction of new-onset OCS-related adverse outcomes. To compare the risk of developing new-onset OCS-related adverse outcomes between biologic initiators and noninitiators. This was a longitudinal cohort study using pooled data from the International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR; 16 countries) and the Optimum Patient Care Research database (OPCRD; United Kingdom).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: For severe asthma (SA) management, real-world evidence on the effects of biologic therapies in reducing the burden of oral corticosteroid (OCS) use is limited.
Objective: To estimate the efficacy of biologic initiation on total OCS (TOCS) exposure in patients with SA from real-world specialist and primary care settings.
Methods: From the International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR, specialist care) and the Optimum Patient Care Research Database (OPCRD, primary care, United Kingdom), adult biologic initiators were identified and propensity score-matched with non-initiators (ISAR, 1:1; OPCRD, 1:2).
Background: Oral corticosteroids (OCS) are commonly used to treat asthma but increase the risks for multiple morbidities; reducing OCS exposure may benefit patients. We analysed independent risk factors and longitudinal changes in OCS usage among patients with asthma to predict future risks of OCS-related adverse outcomes.
Methods: Optimum Patient Care Research Database United Kingdom primary care electronic medical records (EMR) from January 1990 to June 2021 were used to select adults (18-93 years) with asthma who had follow-up data from ≥2 years before to ≥3 years after an index visit for active symptoms; this date was defined by the largest pre-visit to post-visit change in mean annual OCS use.
Pragmat Obs Res
March 2025
Background: Biologics targeting immunoglobulin E, interleukin (IL)-4/IL-13 or IL-5 signaling are effective at treating severe asthma; however, individual patients' responses may be suboptimal, leading to therapy switching or stopping. The CLEAR study aimed to assess real-world biologic use patterns and associated clinical outcomes in patients receiving care for severe asthma.
Methods: CLEAR was a multicenter, observational study that included adults (≥18 years old) from 23 countries enrolled in the International Severe Asthma Registry between December 2015 and August 2021.
Background: With the introduction of the antifibrotic drugs targeting progressive pulmonary fibroses, it becomes imperative to provide reliable contemporary estimates of the most common interstitial lung diseases. We aimed to provide contemporary estimates of the incidence and survival of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) and connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILDs), and to compare their survival to that of the general population. To do this we have used data extracted from the Optimum Patient Care Research Database (OPCRD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTuberc Respir Dis (Seoul)
April 2025
The International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR) was established in 2017 to advance the understanding of severe asthma and its management, thereby improving patient care worldwide. As the first global registry for adults with severe asthma, ISAR enabled individual registries to standardize and pool their data, creating a comprehensive, harmonized dataset with sufficient statistical power to address key research questions and knowledge gaps. Today, ISAR is the largest repository of real-world data on severe asthma, curating data on nearly 35,000 patients from 28 countries worldwide, and has become a leading contributor to severe asthma research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFERJ Open Res
January 2025
https://bit.ly/3zzl2QN.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Patients with severe asthma may be prescribed biologic therapies to improve disease control. The EVEREST study aimed to characterize the global disease burden of patients with severe asthma without access to biologics and those who have access but do not receive biologics, as well as the remaining unmet need despite use of these therapies.
Methods: This was a historical cohort study of patients with severe asthma (aged ≥18 years) in the International Severe Asthma Registry receiving Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2018 step 5 treatment, or with uncontrolled disease at GINA step 4.
Background: Biologic asthma therapies reduce exacerbations and long-term oral corticosteroids (LTOCS) use in randomized controlled trials (RCTs); however, there are limited data on outcomes among patients ineligible for RCTs. Hence, we investigated responsiveness to biologics in a real-world population of adults with severe asthma.
Methods: Adults in the International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR) with ≥24 weeks of follow-up were grouped into those who did, or did not, initiate biologics (anti-IgE, anti-IL5/IL5R, anti-IL4/13).
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
September 2024
Background: Biologic effectiveness is often assessed as response, a term that eludes consistent definition. Identifying those most likely to respond in real-life has proven challenging.
Objective: To explore definitions of biologic responders in adults with severe asthma and investigate patient characteristics associated with biologic response.
Am J Respir Crit Care Med
October 2024
J Allergy Clin Immunol Glob
May 2024
Background: Increasing frequency of intermittent oral corticosteroid (OCS) prescription and cumulative OCS exposure increase the risk of OCS-related adverse outcomes.
Objective: We sought to describe the evolution and trajectory of intermittent OCS prescription patterns in patients with asthma and investigate risk factors independently associated with transitioning to a frequent prescription pattern.
Methods: This historical cohort study included patients with active asthma managed in UK primary care and included in the Optimum Patient Care Research Database (OPCRD; opcrd.
Purpose: Associations between systemic glucocorticoid (SGC) exposure and risk for adverse outcomes have spurred a move toward steroid-sparing treatment strategies. Real-world changes in SGC exposure over time, after the introduction of steroid-sparing treatment strategies, reveal areas of successful risk mitigation as well as unmet needs.
Patients And Methods: A population-based ecological study was performed from the Optimum Patient Care Research Database to describe SGC prescribing trends of steroid-sparing treatment strategies in primary care practices before and after licensure of biologics in the United Kingdom from 1990 to 2019.
World Allergy Organ J
March 2024
Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a chronic respiratory condition that internationally continues to be burdensome and impacts quality of life. Despite availability of medicines and guidelines for healthcare providers for the optimal management of AR, optimisation of its management in the community continues to be elusive. The reasons for this are multi-faceted and include both environmental and healthcare related factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
February 2024
J Allergy Clin Immunol Glob
February 2024
Background: Longitudinal predictors of persistent poor asthma control in severe asthma (SA) cohort remain scarce. The predictive value of the asthma severity scoring system (ASSESS) in the SA cohort outside the original study and in the Asian population is unknown.
Objective: We sought to determine the 5-year longitudinal outcome of patients with SA and validate the use of ASSESS score in predicting future outcomes in SA.
Background: There is little agreement on clinically useful criteria for identifying real-world responders to biologic treatments for asthma.
Objective: To investigate the impact of pre-biologic impairment on meeting domain-specific biologic responder definitions in adults with severe asthma.
Methods: This was a longitudinal, cohort study across 22 countries participating in the International Severe Asthma Registry (https://isaregistries.
BMJ Open Respir Res
December 2023
Background: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be prescribed multiple inhalers that require different techniques for optimal performance. Mixing devices has been associated with poorer COPD outcomes suggesting that it leads to inappropriate inhaler technique. However, empirical evidence is lacking.
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