Refractory asthma in Qena Governorate, Egypt: a single-center study

Background Refractory asthma is defined as asthma with persistent symptoms or asthma with frequent or serious exacerbations accompanied by persistent airflow obstruction despite high doses of corticosteroids. Patients and methods This study included 88 patients with asthma at Qena University Hospital. All participants in this study underwent full medical history, physical examination, chest radiography, and spirometry with reversibility test. Then patients were classified into controlled and uncontrolled groups according to asthma control test. Results We found that poorly controlled asthma was significantly associated with older age, (33.03 +/- 14.3 years for controlled group versus 42.81 +/- 12.8 years for uncontrolled group, P<0.001), higher BMI (24.9 +/- 4.07 years for controlled group versus 28.05 +/- 5.3 for uncontrolled group, P<0.006), history of smoking (P<0.0001), and exposure to dust (P<0.0001), smoke (P<0.00001) and domestic animals (P<0.011), whereas there were no significant differences regarding sex (P=0.617), residence (P<0.805), or exposure to perfumes (P=0.072), soap (P=0.195), pollens (P=0.364), or chemicals (P<0.064). Poor asthma control was significantly associated with poor forced expiratory volume in 1 s (P<0.0001), forced vital capacity (P<0.0001), and forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity (P<0.007). Conclusion Difficult-to-control asthma is more predominant in patients with asthma with elder age, obesity, smoking history, and poor pulmonary functions.