Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Dec 31;8(12):e83540.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083540. eCollection 2013.

Clinical significance of asthma clusters by longitudinal analysis in Korean asthma cohort

So Young Park  1 , Seunghee Baek  2 , Sujeong Kim  1 , Sun-Young Yoon  1 , Hyouk-Soo Kwon  1 , Yoon-Seok Chang  3 , You Sook Cho  1 , An-Soo Jang  4 , Jung Won Park  5 , Dong-Ho Nahm  6 , Ho-Joo Yoon  7 , Sang-Heon Cho  3 , Young-Joo Cho  8 , ByoungWhui Choi  9 , Hee-Bom Moon  1 , Tae-Bum Kim  1 ; COREA Study Group
Affiliations

Clinical significance of asthma clusters by longitudinal analysis in Korean asthma cohort

So Young Park et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: We have previously identified four distinct groups of asthma patients in KOREAN cohorts using cluster analysis: (A) smoking asthma, (B) severe obstructive asthma, (C) early-onset atopic asthma, and (D) late-onset mild asthma.

Methods and results: A longitudinal analysis of each cluster in a Korean adult asthma cohort was performed to investigate the clinical significance of asthma clusters over 12 months. Cluster A showed relatively high asthma control test (ACT) scores but relatively low FEV1 scores, despite a high percentage of systemic corticosteroid use. Cluster B had the lowest mean FEV1, ACT, and the quality of life questionnaire for adult Korean asthmatics (QLQAKA) scores throughout the year, even though the percentage of systemic corticosteroid use was the highest among the four clusters. Cluster C was ranked second in terms of FEV1, with the second lowest percentage of systemic corticosteroid use, and showed a marked improvement in subjective symptoms over time. Cluster D consistently showed the highest FEV1, the lowest systemic corticosteroid use, and had high ACT and QLQAKA scores.

Conclusion: Our asthma clusters had clinical significance with consistency among clusters over 12 months. These distinctive phenotypes may be useful in classifying asthma in real practice.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. FEV1% predicted values during the 12-month follow-up period in each cluster (adapted from Kim TB et al., Eur Respir J, 2013;41:1308–1314.).
Figure 2
Figure 2. ACT scores during the 12-month follow-up period in each cluster.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Percentage of use of systemic corticosteroids during the 12-month follow-up period in each cluster.
Figure 4
Figure 4. QLQAKA scores during the 12-month follow-up period in each cluster.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bateman ED, Hurd SS, Barnes PJ, Bousquet J, Drazen JM, et al. (2008) Global strategy for asthma management and prevention: GINA executive summary. Eur Respir J 31: 143–178. - PubMed
    1. Lenfant C, Clark TJH, Cagnani CB, Bousquet J, et al. (2002) Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention. Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA).
    1. Miller MK, Johnson C, Miller DP, Deniz Y, Bleecker ER, et al. (2005) Severity assessment in asthma: An evolving concept. J Allergy Clin Immunol 116: 990–995. - PubMed
    1. Wenzel SE (2006) Asthma: defining of the persistent adult phenotypes. Lancet 368: 804–813. - PubMed
    1. Haldar P, Pavord ID, Shaw DE, Berry MA, Thomas M, et al. (2008) Cluster analysis and clinical asthma phenotypes. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 178: 218–224. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Substances