Identification and characterization of near‐fatal asthma phenotypes by cluster analysis. Issue 9 (9th June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Serrano‐Pariente, J.; Rodrigo, G.; Fiz, J. A.; Crespo, A.; Plaza, V.; the High Risk Asthma Research Group
• Is Part Of: Allergy. Volume 70:Issue 9(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 1139
• Page End: 1147
• Publication Date: 2015-06-09
• Subjects: Allergy -- Periodicals; 616.97
• DOI: 10.1111/all.12654
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0105-4538

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="all12654-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="all12654-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>Near‐fatal asthma (NFA) is a heterogeneous clinical entity and several profiles of patients have been described according to different clinical, pathophysiological and histological features. However, there are no previous studies that identify in a unbiased way – using statistical methods such as clusters analysis – different phenotypes of NFA. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to identify and to characterize phenotypes of near fatal asthma using a cluster analysis.</p> </sec> <sec id="all12654-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>Over a period of 2 years, 33 Spanish hospitals enrolled 179 asthmatics admitted for an episode of NFA. A cluster analysis using two‐steps algorithm was performed from data of 84 of these cases.</p> </sec> <sec id="all12654-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>The analysis defined three clusters of patients with NFA: cluster 1, the largest, including older patients with clinical and therapeutic criteria of severe asthma; cluster 2, with an high proportion of respiratory arrest (68%), impaired conciousness level (82%) and mechanical ventilation (93%); and cluster 3, which included younger patients, characterized by an insufficient anti‐inflammatory treatment and frequent sensitization to <italic>Alternaria alternata</italic> and soybean.</p> </sec> <sec id="all12654-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>These results identify specific asthma phenotypes involved in NFA, confirming in part previous findings observed in studies with a clinical approach. The identification of patients with a specific NFA phenotype could suggest interventions to prevent future severe asthma exacerbations.</p> </sec> </abstract>