Complex lung function in severe asthma: seeing is believing. Issue 2 (August 2016) - King, Gregory G.
Difficult-to-treat or severe asthma remains a common problem and a challenge for healthcare providers. It affects up to 10% of asthmatic individuals, who continue to suffer high disease burden and healthcare costs [1]. This clinical problem still exists despite many advances in the understanding of the underlying basis of asthma and improved management strategies, which include targeted anti-inflammatory therapy with monoclonal antibodies. Research effort continues, with exploration of different aspects of pathophysiology such as genomics, proteomics, inflammation, airway remodelling and airway smooth muscle abnormalities. In this context, the examination of complex lung function at the whole-organ level becomes increasingly important. There have been many technical advances in functional imaging and in complex measures of lung function that can now be used to explore the pathophysiology of asthma at the whole-organ level, and which can be more directly related to clinical manifestations of disease such as symptoms and airway hyperresponsiveness. Techniques to partition airway dysfunction could improve understanding of severe asthma http://ow.ly/N7zD301wFn6