CHARACTERIZATION OF SUBJECTS WITH SEVERE ASTHMA

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Asthma affects approximately 8% of the adult population and up to 20% of children in North America, Europe, and Australia. The majority of these patients have mild-to-moderate disease, which can be controlled with inhaled corticosteroids and an inhaled short acting B-adrenergic agonist. It is, however, estimated that about 5% to 10% of asthma patients have severe disease that does not respond to usual treatment modalities, including systemic corticosteroids. This group of patients is an important subset of asthma patients. For example, they suffer the greatest impairment of their lifestyle, and their disease has a profound impact on the health-care system as they use a disproportional amount of health-care costs. Furthermore minorities and women share this burden. Finally, this aspect of asthma is poorly understood, and thus there are major limitations to new therapeutics. The NIH/NHLBI has funded a group of 8 investigators, a Data Coordinating Center (DCC), and a Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) under the Acronym SARP (Severe Asthma Research Program). We believe that severe asthma may be caused, in some patients, by a persistent respiratory infections with viruses, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, or Chlamydia pneumoniae, and that this will be more common in severe disease. To evaluate this hypothesis, a severe asthma population will be identified and compared to mild-to-moderate asthma and normal controls. The primary objective of these studies will be to determine whether evidence of a persistent respiratory infections is associated with severe asthma and results in greater limitation in airflow.