RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Higher burden of asthma symptoms and increased blood eosinophils in ACOS
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP PA1002
DO 10.1183/13993003.congress-2016.PA1002
VO 48
IS suppl 60
A1 Ida Mogensen
A1 Kjell Alving
A1 João A. Fonseca
A1 Tiago Jacinto
A1 Christer Janson
A1 Andrei Malinovschi
YR 2016
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/48/suppl_60/PA1002.abstract
AB Background: Asthma with fixed airflow obstruction (FAO) is associated to more symptoms. Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) has been recognized as a new phenotype, but few studies are available.Aims and objectives: To evaluate the differences between asthmatic subjects with or without FAO and ACOS regarding asthma events and inflammation.Method: We included 755 subjects in the age group 20-79 years from three National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (2007-12) with physician-diagnosed asthma. 220 subjects had FAO, defined as FEV1/FVC <LLN after bronchodilation. Three groups were created: asthma without FAO (reference group), asthma with FAO (FAO group) and asthma with FAO and chronic bronchitis, emphysema or ≥10 pack years (ACOS group). Frequent symptoms (≥2 symptoms the previous year), asthma attacks the previous year, exhaled NO (FeNO; elevated ≥25 ppb) and blood eosinophils (B-Eos; elevated ≥300 cells/µl) were studied.Results: The FAO and ACOS groups reported more symptoms than the reference group, while no difference was seen for attacks. The ACOS group had higher B-Eos counts but lower FeNO than the reference group. The association between more symptoms and FAO and ACOS, respectively, remained significant in the adjusted analyses (aOR (95%CI)): 2.2 (1.3-3.5) for FAO and 1.9 (1.1-3.3) for ACOS; as well as the relation between higher B-Eos count and ACOS: 2.0 (1.2-3.5). There was no association with FeNO.Conclusion: Asthma with fixed airflow obstruction and ACOS were associated to more symptoms than asthma without these characteristics (reference group). No relation to elevated biomarkers was seen for the FAO group while ACOS related to higher B-Eos counts when compared to the reference group.