RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Clinical, functional and inflammatory characteristics in patients with paucigranulocytic asthma JF European Respiratory Journal JO Eur Respir J FD European Respiratory Society SP PA4173 DO 10.1183/13993003.congress-2016.PA4173 VO 48 IS suppl 60 A1 Polyxeni Ntontsi A1 Stelios Loukides A1 Petros Bakakos A1 Konstantinos Kostikas A1 Georgios Papatheodorou A1 Evgenia Ppathanassiou A1 Anastasia Papaporfyriou A1 Elissavet Konstantellou A1 Hillas Georgios A1 Nikolaos Koulouris A1 Spyridon Papiris A1 Andriana Papaioannou YR 2016 UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/48/suppl_60/PA4173.abstract AB Introduction: According to induced sputum cell count,4 different asthma phenotypes have been recognised(eosinophilic, neutrophilic,mixedand paucigranulocytic).Aim: To detect the differences in functional and inflammatory characteristics of asthmatic patients according to the phenotype.Methods: 240(169 female)optimally treated asthmatic patients underwent pulmonary function tests, sputum induction and measurement of FeNO. The levels ofIL-8,IL-13, and ECP were measured in sputum supernatant. Patients treatment, asthma control [using the Asthma Control Test, (ACT)] and the presence of Severe Refractory Asthma(SRA) (according to the ATS workshop consensus) were also recorded.Results: Although ACT did not differ between the groups(p=0.288)patients with paucigranulocytic asthma had better lung function (i.e FEV1%74.2±19.8 vs 69.7±18.2 vs72.2±20.2 vs 81.9±20.4 for eosinophilic, mixed, neutrophilic and paucigranulocytic asthma respectively, p=0.009).SRA occurred more frequently in the eosinophilic and mixed phenotype (41.6% and 43.7% respectively) and less frequently in the neutrophilic and paucigranulocytic phenotype (25% and 21.7% respectively) (p=0.01).As expected,FeNO and ECP were higher in eosinophilic and mixed asthma while IL-8 was increased in patients with neutrophilic and mixed asthma (p<0.001 for all comparisons).Patients with eosinophilic asthma received more often high doses of ICS (44.8%,P+0.004)than the other phenotypes.Conclusion: According to our results,paucigranulocyticasthma is characterised bylower levels of inflammatory cells and inflammatory biomarkers,better pulmonary function and lower frequency of SRA which might reflect a better response to therapy in these patients.