PURPOSE: Smoking has detrimental effects on asthma symptom control and response to treatment and is prevalent among asthma patients in South Korea. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of smoking among asthma patients in South Korea and to compare the medication regimens of asthma patients who do and do not smoke. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from August 2010 to January 2011. Participating physicians (N=25) recorded demographic and clinical data on all asthma patients presenting during the study period (N=2,032), and then recruited a subset of patients (N=500) for the survey such that half were self-reported current smokers. Recruited patients were between the ages of 18 and 60. RESULTS: Among presenting asthma patients, 17.3% were current smokers, 19.2% were former smokers, and 63.5% had never smoked. Within the analyzable study population (N=471), 212 patients reported smoking currently, 79 smoking formerly, and 180 never smoking. Among current and former smokers, 79.7% and 81.0%, respectively, were men, while women represented 80.5% of patients who had never smoked. Agreement was strong between physician-determined smoking status and patient-reported smoking status (kappa=0.82; P<0.001). However, asthma medication regimens examined according to GINA treatment steps did not differ by smoking status. In addition, mean quality of life scores and level of asthma control did not differ by smoking status. CONCLUSIONS: In South Korea, physicians are well aware of the smoking status of their patients. However, smoking status did not affect the prescribed medication regimens of this population of asthma patients.
Asthma* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Prevalence ; Quality of Life ; Seoul ; Smoke* ; Smoking*

A major burden of severe asthma is the future risk of adverse health outcomes. Patients with severe asthma are prone to serious exacerbation and deterioration of lung function and may experience side effects of medications such as oral corticosteroids (OCSs). However, such future risk is not easily measurable in daily clinical practice. In particular, currently available tools to measure asthma control and asthma-related quality of life incompletely predict the future risk of medication-related morbidity. This is a significant issue in asthma management. This review summarizes the current evidence of future risk in patients with severe asthma. As future risk is poorly perceived by controlled asthmatics, our review focuses on the risk in patients with ‘controlled’ severe asthma. Of note, it is likely that long-term OCS therapy may not prevent future asthma progression, including lung function decline. In addition, the risk of drug side effects increases even during low-dose OCS therapy. Thus, novel treatments are highly desirable for reducing future risks without any loss of asthma control.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; Asthma ; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; Humans ; Lung ; Quality of Life

Severe asthma is "asthma which requires treatment with high dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) plus a second controller (and/or systemic corticosteroids) to prevent it from becoming 'uncontrolled’ or which remains 'uncontrolled’ despite this therapy." The state of control was defined by symptoms, exacerbations and the degree of airflow obstruction. Therefore, for the diagnosis of severe asthma, it is important to have evidence for a diagnosis of asthma with an assessment of its severity, followed by a review of comorbidities, risk factors, triggers and an assessment of whether treatment is commensurate with severity, whether the prescribed treatments have been adhered to and whether inhaled therapy has been properly administered. Phenotyping of severe asthma has been introduced with the definition of a severe eosinophilic asthma phenotype characterized by recurrent exacerbations despite being on high dose ICS and sometimes oral corticosteroids, with a high blood eosinophil count and a raised level of nitric oxide in exhaled breath. This phenotype has been associated with a Type-2 (T2) inflammatory profile with expression of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, and IL-13. Molecular phenotyping has also revealed non-T2 inflammatory phenotypes such as Type-1 or Type-17 driven phenotypes. Antibody treatments targeted at the T2 targets such as anti-IL5, anti-IL5Rα, and anti-IL4Rα antibodies are now available for treating severe eosinophilic asthma, in addition to anti-immunoglobulin E antibody for severe allergic asthma. No targeted treatments are currently available for non-T2 inflammatory phenotypes. Long-term azithromycin and bronchial thermoplasty may be considered. The future lies with molecular phenotyping of the airway inflammatory process to refine asthma endotypes for precision medicine.

PURPOSE: An older female predominance has been reported among chronic cough patients in Western countries, which is considered to be associated with a higher cough sensitivity in females. However, the characteristics of Chinese chronic cough patients remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the age and sex distribution as well as their relationship with cough reflex sensitivity to capsaicin in Chinese chronic cough patients. METHODS: We analyzed the demographic features of 1,882 consecutive chronic cough patients who attended our cough clinic in Guangzhou, China. Cough sensitivity to capsaicin, which was defined as the lowest concentration of capsaicin causing 5 coughs or more (C5), was measured in 539 of the 1,882 patients and 68 healthy volunteers. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 43.0 ± 13.7 years and patients aged <50 years accounted for more than two-thirds of the study population. Around 87% of the patients were never-smokers. The proportion of females (51.5%) was almost equal to that of males (48.5%). The pattern of the age and sex distribution was consistently reflected within most common causes of chronic cough, while a female predominance was shown in patients with cough-variant asthma and patients aged ≥50 years. Female patients had higher cough sensitivity to capsaicin than male patients (log C5: 1.58 ± 0.84 vs. 2.04 ± 0.84 μmol/L, P = 0.001), and patients aged ≥50 years had higher cough sensitivity to capsaicin than patients aged <50 years. CONCLUSIONS: In China, patients with chronic cough have a roughly equal sex distribution and a middle-aged predominance, irrespective of a higher cough sensitivity to capsaicin in females and older patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02591550
Age Distribution ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Asthma ; Capsaicin ; China ; Cough ; Female ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Male ; Reflex ; Sex Distribution

Humans ; Asthma/drug therapy* ; Biological Therapy