Positive change in asthma control using therapeutic patient education in severe uncontrolled asthma: a one-year prospective study.

Background: Severe asthma is difficult to control. Therapeutic patient education enables patients to better understand their disease and cope with treatment, but the effect of therapeutic patient education in severe uncontrolled asthma is unclear. We evaluated whether therapeutic patient education is effective in improving asthma control and decreasing the frequency of exacerbations in severe uncontrolled asthma.

Bronchiectasis after bronchial thermoplasty.

Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is used in the treatment of severe refractory asthma. It has been found to be beneficial to long-term improvements in the rate of asthma exacerbation, quality of life questionnaire answers (AQLQ), hospitalization, and emergency room visits. Atelectasis and lung abscess as direct complication of BT, but not bronchiectasis, have been reported previously.

Asthma Phenotypes Defined From Parameters Obtained During Recovery From a Hospital-Treated Exacerbation.

Background: Asthma is a heterogeneous disease with diverse clinical manifestations and inflammatory pathologies that is punctuated by exacerbations.

Objective: To describe the clinical and inflammatory characteristics of patients with asthma treated in hospital for an acute exacerbation.

Methods: Data from 320 adult patients receiving treatment for an acute exacerbation of asthma were obtained.

Sputum microbiota in severe asthma patients: Relationship to eosinophilic inflammation.

Background: Altered composition of airway microbiota has been reported in subjects suffering from asthma but its relation to eosinophilic phenotype is unclear.

Objective: To examine the relationship between sputum microbiota, asthma severity and inflammatory type in asthmatic subjects from Guangzhou, China.

Methods: Induced sputum samples were obtained from 49 non-smoking asthma patients, 25 severe and 24 non-severe, and 15 healthy subjects.

[Bronchial thermoplasty in the treatment of severe asthma].

Objective: To assess the effectiveness and safety of bronchial thermoplasty (BT) in the treatment of severe asthma.

Methods: The safety and effectiveness of BT were studied prospectively in 6 patients with poorly controlled severe asthma on long-term inhaled high-dose glucocorticoids and long-acting beta2-agonists in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. Outcomes assessed after BT included asthma symptoms, frequency of acute exacerbations, pulmonary function, medication adjustment, and postoperative complications at 6 and 12 months after treatment.