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Published on: December 17, 2017
Adjusting prednisone using blood eosinophils reduces exacerbations and improves asthma control in difficult patients
Peter Ab Wark1,2, Vanessa M McDonald1,2, Peter G Gibson1,2
1Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Disease, HMRI University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.
Abstract:
Severe or therapy-resistant asthma represents a major problem, and despite advanced treatment, many patients require oral corticosteroids (OCS). We aimed to determine if patients with severe asthma and elevated peripheral blood eosinophils (PBE) could have treatment with OCS adjusted using an algorithm that controlled PBE (<0.2 × 10(9) /L). In 11 patients, the OCS dose was adjusted to suppress PBE, leading to a reduced exacerbation frequency and improvement in asthma symptoms with an overall lower OCS dose.
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