Abstract
Background: Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a device based treatment for severe asthma targeting airway smooth muscle (ASM). Patient responder profile is still under debate. Forced oscillation technique (FOT) is an effort-independent technique using sinusoidal waveforms to assess respiratory resistance (Rrs) during tidal breathing.
Aim: Assess the effect of BT on lung function parameters and evaluate whether BT treatment response could be predicted by lung function.
Methods: Severe asthma patients from the TASMA trial underwent pre- and post-bronchodilation (BD) spirometry, bodybox and FOT before and 6 months after BT. Response was based on clinical improvement >0.5 on asthma questionnaires (ACQ/AQLQ).
Results: 18 patients were evaluated. Pre and post-BD FEV1(%), sRaw(%) and FOT measurements did not change after BT. However when comparing results based on BT treatment response a significant higher Rrs (FOT at 5Hz) was found in non-responders (n=8) versus responders (n=10). This difference was already present at baseline (Fig 1). Moreover, sRaw post-BD(%) was significantly increased in non-responders (77% pre-BT vs 114% post-BT, p<0.05), while responders did not change (62% vs 63%).
Conclusion: Lung function parameters were unchanged after BT, however a higher airway resistance in non-responders was observed which was already present at baseline, suggesting that a high resistance at baseline could be a negative predictor for BT response.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2018 52: Suppl. 62, OA3560.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2018