Real-life Cretan asthma registry focused on severe asthma: On behalf of 'The Cretan registry of the use of Biologics in Severe Asthma'

Asthma diagnosis and management remains a challenging task for the medical community. The aim of the present study was to present the functional and inflammatory profiles of patients with difficult-to-treat asthma in a real-life clinical setting referred to the specialized asthma clinic at the University Hospital of Heraklion. The registry included a cohort of 267 patients who were referred to the severe asthma clinic. Patients were assessed with emphasis on the history of allergies, nasal polyposis or other comorbidities. Blood testing for eosinophils counts and total and specific IgE, and pulmonary function tests were performed at baseline. The median age of patients with asthma was 55 years old, 68.5% were women and 58.3% were never smokers. The vast majority presented with late onset asthma (75.7%), whereas eight (3%) patients were on oral corticosteroids. The median number of exacerbations during the last 12 months was 1 (0-3). Furthermore, 50.7% of patients had a positive serum allergy test, the median eosinophil count was 300 (188-508.5) cells/mu l of blood and median total IgE level was 117.5 (29.4-360.5) IU/ml. Patients were retrospectively grouped in the following categories: Group 1, mild-moderate asthma; group 2, patients prescribed a step 4 or 5 asthma therapy according to Global Initiative for Asthma; and group 3, patients on biologic agents. Group 1 had significantly higher FEV1% than groups 2 and 3 (93.4 vs. 79.9 and 79.4%, respectively; P<0.001). Finally, the median Asthma Control Questionnaire 7 (ACQ7) score was 1.14, with patients from groups 2 and 3 presenting higher ACQ7 scores compared with group 1 patients as expected (1.1 and 2.1 vs. 0.7, respectively; P<0.001). To the best of our knowledge, this was the first real-life asthma study in Crete that demonstrated that severe asthmatics predominantly have late-onset asthma with airflow obstruction and uncontrolled symptoms.