10 Treatable Traits That Could Predict Asthma Attacks

The science and art of predicting asthma risk may go beyond asthma symptoms and lung physiology and intersect with the presence of chronic disease. Dr. Susarla

With increasing attention on a “treatable traits”—a new classification and precision medicine strategy for asthma and other chronic airway diseases,1 a team of researchers set out to examine whether and which treatable traits could be identified from registry data in persons with severe asthma and used to predict the future risk of asthma exacerbations.2

In their study, published in the journal Respirology, the investigators recorded the prevalence of the treatable asthma traits of 434 participants with severe asthma and 102 participants with non-severe asthma, all of whom were enrolled in the Australasian Severe Asthma Web‐Based Database. The prevalence of participants’ treatable asthma traits were described. They assessed participants at the study’s outset and then every 6 months thereafter for 24 months.

Of the 24 treatable traits the researchers identified, 10 predicted exacerbation risk in the participants with severe asthma, with the 5 strongest as follows:

• Being prone to exacerbations
• Depression
• Inhaler device polypharmacy
• Vocal cord dysfunction
• Obstructive sleep apnea

“Treatable traits can be assessed using a severe asthma registry,” the authors concluded. “In severe asthma, patients express more treatable traits than non‐severe asthma. Traits may be associated with future asthma exacerbation risk demonstrating the clinical utility of assessing treatable traits.”

Read article here.