Association between pre-biologic T2-biomarker combinations and response to biologics in patients with severe asthma

Background

To date, studies investigating the association between pre-biologic biomarker levels and post-biologic outcomes have been limited to single biomarkers and assessment of biologic efficacy from structured clinical trials.

Aim

To elucidate the associations of pre-biologic individual biomarker levels or their combinations with pre-to-post biologic changes in asthma outcomes in real-life.

Methods

This was a registry-based, cohort study using data from 23 countries, which shared data with the International Severe Asthma Registry (May 2017-February 2023). The investigated biomarkers (highest pre-biologic levels) were immunoglobulin E (IgE), blood eosinophil count (BEC) and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO). Pre- to approximately 12-month post-biologic change for each of three asthma outcome domains (i.e. exacerbation rate, symptom control and lung function), and the association of this change with pre-biologic biomarkers was investigated for individual and combined biomarkers.

Results

Overall, 3751 patients initiated biologics and were included in the analysis. No association was found between pre-biologic BEC and pre-to-post biologic change in exacerbation rate for any biologic class. However, higher pre-biologic BEC and FeNO were both associated with greater post-biologic improvement in FEV1 for both anti-IgE and anti-IL5/5R, with a trend for anti-IL4Rα. Mean FEV1 improved by 27-178 mL post-anti-IgE as pre-biologic BEC increased (250 to 1000 cells/µL), and by 43-216 mL and 129-250 mL post-anti-IL5/5R and -anti-IL4Rα, respectively along the same BEC gradient. Corresponding improvements along a FeNO gradient (25-100 ppb) were 41-274 mL, 69-207 mL and 148-224 mL for anti-IgE, anti-IL5/5R, and anti-IL4Rα, respectively. Higher baseline BEC was also associated with lower probability of uncontrolled asthma (OR 0.392; p=0.001) post-biologic for anti-IL5/5R. Pre-biologic IgE was a poor predictor of subsequent pre-to-post-biologic change for all outcomes assessed for all biologics. The combination of BEC + FeNO marginally improved the prediction of post-biologic FEV1 increase (adjusted R2: 0.751), compared to BEC (adjusted R2: 0.747) or FeNO alone (adjusted R2: 0.743) (p=0.005 and <0.001, respectively); however, this prediction was not improved by the addition of IgE.

Conclusions

The ability of higher baseline BEC, FeNO and their combination to predict biologic-associated lung function improvement may encourage earlier intervention in patients with impaired lung function or at risk of accelerated lung function decline.

Association Between T2-related Comorbidities and Effectiveness of Biologics in Severe Asthma

Rationale: Previous studies investigating the impact of comorbidities on the effectiveness of biologic agents have been relatively small and of short duration and have not compared classes of biologic agents. Objectives: To determine the association between type 2-related comorbidities and biologic agent effectiveness in adults with severe asthma (SA). Methods: This cohort study used International Severe Asthma Registry data from 21 countries (2017-2022) to quantify changes in four outcomes before and after biologic therapy-annual asthma exacerbation rate, FEV1% predicted, asthma control, and long-term oral corticosteroid daily dose-in patients with or without allergic rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with or without nasal polyps (NPs), NPs, or eczema/atopic dermatitis. Measurements and Main Results: Of 1,765 patients, 1,257, 421, and 87 initiated anti-IL-5/5 receptor, anti-IgE, and anti-IL-4/13 therapies, respectively. In general, pre- versus post-biologic therapy improvements were noted in all four asthma outcomes assessed, irrespective of comorbidity status. However, patients with comorbid CRS with or without NPs experienced 23% fewer exacerbations per year (95% CI, 10-35%; P < 0.001) and had 59% higher odds of better post-biologic therapy asthma control (95% CI, 26-102%; P < 0.001) than those without CRS with or without NPs. Similar estimates were noted for those with comorbid NPs: 22% fewer exacerbations and 56% higher odds of better post-biologic therapy control. Patients with SA and CRS with or without NPs had an additional FEV1% predicted improvement of 3.2% (95% CI, 1.0-5.3; P = 0.004), a trend that was also noted in those with comorbid NPs. The presence of allergic rhinitis or atopic dermatitis was not associated with post-biologic therapy effect for any outcome assessed. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of systematic comorbidity evaluation. The presence of CRS with or without NPs or NPs alone may be considered a predictor of the effectiveness of biologic agents in patients with SA.

Analysis of comorbidities and multimorbidity in adult patients in the International Severe Asthma Registry

BACKGROUND

Investigation for the presence of asthma comorbidities is recommended by the Global Initiative for Asthma because their presence can complicate asthma management.

OBJECTIVE

To understand the prevalence and pattern of comorbidities and multimorbidity in adults with severe asthma and their association with asthma-related outcomes.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study using data from the International Severe Asthma Registry from 22 countries. A total of 30 comorbidities were identified and categorized a priori as any of the following: (1) potentially type 2-related comorbidities, (2) potentially oral corticosteroid (OCS)-related comorbidities, or (3) comorbidities mimicking or aggravating asthma. The association between comorbidities and asthma-related outcomes was investigated using multivariable models adjusted for country, age at enrollment, and sex (ie male or female).

RESULTS

Of the 11,821 patients, 69%, 67%, and 55% had at least 1 potentially type 2-related, potentially OCS-related, or mimicking or aggravating comorbidities, respectively; 57% had 3 or more comorbidities, and 33% had comorbidities in all 3 categories. Patients with allergic rhinitis, nasal polyposis, and chronic rhinosinusitis experienced 1.12 (P = .003), 1.16 (P < .001), and 1.29 times (P < .001) more exacerbations per year, respectively, than those without. Patients with nasal polyposis and chronic rhinosinusitis were 40% and 46% more likely (P < .001), respectively, to have received long-term (LT) OCS. All assessed potential OCS-related comorbidities (except obesity) were associated with a greater likelihood of LTOCS use (odds ratios [ORs]: 1.23-2.77) and, except for dyslipidemia, with a greater likelihood of uncontrolled asthma (ORs: 1.29-1.68). All mimicking or aggravating comorbidities assessed were associated with more exacerbations (1.24-1.68 times more), all (except bronchiectasis) with increased likelihood of uncontrolled asthma (ORs: 1.57-1.81), and all (except chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) with increased likelihood of LTOCS use (ORs: 1.37-1.57). A greater number of comorbidities was associated with worse outcomes.

CONCLUSION

In a global study, comorbidity or multimorbidity is reported in most adults with severe asthma and is associated with poorer asthma-related outcomes.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

The International Severe Asthma Registry database has ethical approval from the Anonymous Data Ethics Protocols and Transparency (ADEPT) committee (ADEPT0218) and is registered with the European Union Electronic Register of Post-Authorization Studies (European Network Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance [ENCEPP]/DSPP/23720). The study was designed, implemented, and reported in compliance with the European Network Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCEPP) Code of Conduct (EMA 2014; EUPAS44024) and with all applicable local and international laws and regulations, and registered with ENCEPP (https://www.encepp.eu/encepp/viewResource.htm?id=48848). Governance was provided by ADEPT (registration number: ADEPT1121).

Discrepancies between perceptions of students and deans regarding the consequences of restricting students' use of electronic medical records on quality of medical education

BACKGROUND

Electronic medical records (EMR) are more used in university hospitals, but the use of EMR by medical students at the workplace is still a challenge, because the conflict of interest between medical accountability for hospitals and quality of medical education programs for students. Therefore, this study investigates the use of EMR from the perspective of medical school deans and students, and determines their perceptions and concerns about consequences of restricted use of EMR by students on quality of education and patient care.

METHODS

We administered a large-scale survey about the existence of EMR, existing policies, students' use for learning, and consequences on patient care to 42 deans and 789 Residency Physician Applicants in a private university in Colombia. Data from 26 deans and 442 former graduated students were compared with independent t tests and chi square tests.

RESULTS

Only half of medical schools had learning programs and policies about the use of EMR by students. Deans did not realize that students have less access to EMR than to paper-based MR. Perceptions of non-curricular learning opportunities how to write in (E)MR were significantly different between deans and students. Limiting students use of EMR has negative consequences on medical education, according to both deans and students, while deans worried significantly more about impact on patient care than students. Billing issues and liability aspects were their major concerns.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need for a clear policy and educational program on the use of EMR by students. Discrepancies between the planned curriculum by deans and the real clinical learning environment as experienced by students indicate suboptimal learning opportunities for students. Creating powerful workplace-learning experiences and resolving concerns on students use of EMR has to be resolved in a constructive collaboration way between the involved stakeholders, including also EMR designers and hospital administrators. We recommend intense supervision of students' work in EMR to take full advantage of the technological advances of EMR at the modern clinical site, both for patient care and for medical education.

Asthma in adults

INTRODUCTION

About 10% of adults have suffered an attack of asthma, and up to 5% of these have severe disease that responds poorly to treatment. Patients with severe disease have an increased risk of death, but patients with mild-to-moderate disease are also at risk of exacerbations. Most guidelines about the management of asthma follow stepwise protocols. This review does not endorse or follow any particular protocol, but presents the evidence about specific interventions.

METHODS AND OUTCOMES

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical question: What are the effects of treatments for chronic asthma? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to April 2010 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

RESULTS

We found 54 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: adding anti-IgE treatment; beta(2) agonists (adding long-acting inhaled beta(2) agonists when asthma is poorly controlled by inhaled corticosteroids, or short-acting inhaled beta(2) agonists as needed for symptom relief); inhaled corticosteroids (low dose and increasing dose); leukotriene antagonists (with or without inhaled corticosteroids); and theophylline (when poorly controlled by inhaled corticosteroids).

Asthma in adults

INTRODUCTION

About 10% of adults have suffered an attack of asthma, and up to 5% of these have severe disease that responds poorly to treatment. Patients with severe disease have an increased risk of death, but patients with mild-to-moderate disease are also at risk of exacerbations. Most guidelines about the management of asthma follow stepwise protocols. This review does not endorse or follow any particular protocol, but presents the evidence about specific interventions.

METHODS AND OUTCOMES

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of treatments for chronic asthma? What are the effects of treatments for acute asthma? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to June 2008 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

RESULTS

We found 99 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

In this systematic review, we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions. For acute asthma: beta(2) agonists (plus ipratropium bromide, pressured metered-dose inhalers, short-acting continuous nebulised, short-acting intermittent nebulised, and short-acting intravenous); corticosteroids (inhaled); corticosteroids (single oral, combined inhaled, and short courses); education about acute asthma; generalist care; helium-oxygen mixture (heliox); magnesium sulphate (intravenous and adding isotonic nebulised magnesium to inhaled beta(2) agonists); mechanical ventilation; oxygen supplementation (controlled 28% oxygen and controlled 100% oxygen); and specialist care. For chronic asthma: beta(2) agonists (adding long-acting inhaled beta(2) agonists when asthma is poorly controlled by inhaled corticosteroids, or short-acting inhaled beta(2) agonists as needed for symptom relief); inhaled corticosteroids (low dose and increasing dose); leukotriene antagonists (with or without inhaled corticosteroids); and theophylline (when poorly controlled by inhaled corticosteroids).

Asthma in adults

INTRODUCTION

About 10% of adults have suffered an attack of asthma, and up to 5% of these have severe disease that responds poorly to treatment. Patients with severe disease have an increased risk of death, but patients with mild to moderate disease are also at risk of exacerbations. Most guidelines about the management of asthma follow stepwise protocols. This review does not endorse or follow any particular protocol, but presents the evidence about specific interventions.

METHODS AND OUTCOMES

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of treatments for chronic, and for acute asthma? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library and other important databases up to October 2006 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

RESULTS

We found 121 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: for acute asthma: beta(2) agonists (plus Ipratropium bromide, nebulisers, pressured metered-dose inhalers, short-acting continuous nebulised, short-acting intermittent nebulised, short-acting intravenous), corticosteroids (inhaled), corticosteroids (single oral, combined inhaled, short courses), education about acute asthma, generalist care, helium-oxygen mixture, magnesium sulphate (intravenous, adding isotonic nebulised magnesium to inhaled beta(2) agonists), mechanical ventilation, oxygen supplementation (controlled 28% oxygen, controlled 100% oxygen), specialist care. For chronic asthma: beta(2) agonists (adding long-acting inhaled when poorly controlled by inhaled corticosteroids, or short-acting inhaled as needed for symptom relief), inhaled corticosteroids (low dose, increasing dose), leukotriene antagonists (with or without inhaled corticosteroids), theophylline (when poorly controlled by inhaled corticosteroids).

Role of muscle perfusion and baroreception in the hyperpnea following muscle contraction in dog

The influence of impeding muscle perfusion on the time course of ventilatory decline during recovery from electrically induced hindlimb contractions has been studied in 14 anesthetized dogs. When intravascular balloons, placed in abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava just rostral to the iliac bifurcation, were inflated at the cessation of contraction bout, minute ventilation (VE) was significantly reduced during recovery compared with control. The subsequent restoration of iliac circulation rapidly augmented VE, which peaked at the fifth breath after release, by an average of +4.97 L.min-1; VE then returned exponentially to resting (pre-contraction) level. Breathing 100% O2 did not affect the VE recovery pattern neither during iliac occlusion nor immediately after its release (the peak average delta VE = +4.42 L.min-1). When a local anesthetic (5% Lidocaine) was applied bilaterally to the regions of carotid bifurcation, systemic blood pressure was significantly increased and the VE response to both iliac occlusion and release were nearly abolished. The VE response to inhalation of 5% CO2 in air was not affected by this procedure, whereas the stimulation of VE with 2 mg i.v. bolus of NaCN was attenuated. When the local anesthetic was thoroughly washed out (and systemic blood pressure had returned to control level) the previously observed VE responses to iliac occlusion and release were restored. These results and analysis of the VE response timing (transits and latencies) suggest that the vascular rather than humoral effects or tissue 'metaboreception' modulate ventilatory recovery from muscular contractions; baroreception appears to be important in this process.

Respiration during recovery from exercise: effects of trapping and release of femoral blood flow

To investigate the contribution of vascular and metabolic stimuli to the sustained hyperpnea after exercise, the respiratory effects of obstructing and then releasing the femoral blood flow were recorded in 15 normal volunteers during recovery from steady-state cycle exercise (80 W). Obstruction was achieved using cuffs around the upper thighs, inflated for the first 2 min of recovery to a pressure of 200 mmHg. Cuff inflation significantly reduced ventilation during recovery compared with control (P less than 0.001); the subsequent release of pressure was accompanied by an increase in ventilation (averaging 3.2 l/min), which began on the first breath after release. This preceded a rise in end-tidal CO2 (maximum 8.3 Torr increase), which first became significant on the fourth breath after release and led to a further rise in ventilation. The first-breath increase in ventilation after cuff release persisted, although slightly attenuated (averaging 2.5 l/min), in additional experiments with inspired O2 fraction of 1.0. The pattern of ventilatory response was also similar when the experiments were performed with 5% CO2 in air as the inspirate. The immediate rise in ventilation on cuff release, together with the persistent response on 100% O2, suggests that the vascular changes resulting from cuff release exert an influence on ventilation independent of the effects of released metabolites on the known chemoreceptors. The persistence of the response on 5% CO2 indicates that CO2-sensitive lung afferents do not have a major role in these responses.