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Published on: April 14, 2010
Repeatability of response to asthma medications
Ann Chen Wu1, Kelan Tantisira, Lingling Li
1Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass, USA.
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
|December 10, 2008
Summary
This study shows that FEV(1) and PC(20) measurements are highly repeatable in asthma patients, making them reliable outcomes for genetic studies of asthma drug response.
Area of Science:
- Pulmonary Medicine
- Pharmacogenetics
- Clinical Trials
Background:
- Pharmacogenetic studies in asthma often assume consistent patient response to treatments, but this has not been formally demonstrated.
- Understanding patient variability in treatment response is crucial for personalized medicine in asthma.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the repeatability of key asthma outcome measures: bronchodilator response, FEV(1), and PC(20).
- To validate these outcomes for use in pharmacogenetic studies of asthma treatment response.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of data from the Childhood Asthma Management Program, a 4-year multicenter clinical trial.
- Used mixed-effects regression models to calculate intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for each outcome, adjusted for covariates.
- Stratified analysis by treatment group (budesonide, nedocromil, placebo).
Main Results:
- High repeatability (ICC > 0.6) was observed for FEV(1) across all treatment groups.
- PC(20) also demonstrated high repeatability (ICC > 0.65) across treatment groups.
- Bronchodilator response showed lower repeatability (ICC < 0.4) compared to FEV(1) and PC(20).
Conclusions:
- FEV(1) and PC(20) exhibit high within-treatment group repeatability, suggesting they are heritable and suitable for genetic studies.
- These findings indicate FEV(1) and PC(20) are more robust phenotypes than bronchodilator response for investigating asthma treatment response genetics.
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