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. 2021 May;13(3):507-514.
doi: 10.4168/aair.2021.13.3.507.

Specialist Perception of Severe Asthma in Korea: A Questionnaire Survey

Mi Ae Kim  1 , Heung Woo Park  2 , Byung Keun Kim  3 , So Young Park  4 , Ga Young Ban  5 , Ji Hyang Lee  6 , Jin An  6 , Ji Su Shim  7 , Youngsoo Lee  8 , Ha Kyeong Won  9 , Hwa Young Lee  10 , Kyoung Hee Sohn  11 , Sung Yoon Kang  12 , So Young Park  13 , Hyun Lee  14 , Min Hye Kim  7 , Jae Woo Kwon  15 , Sun Young Yoon  16 , Jae Hyun Lee  17 , Chin Kook Rhee  10 , Ji Yong Moon  14 , Taehoon Lee  18 , So Ri Kim  19 , Jong Sook Park  20 , Sang Heon Kim  14 , Jae Won Jeong  21 , Sang Hoon Kim  13 , Young Il Koh  22 , Yeon Mok Oh  23 , An Soo Jang  20 , Kwang Ha Yoo  4 , You Sook Cho  6 ; Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy, and Clinical Immunology (KAACI), the Working Group on Severe Asthma
Affiliations

Specialist Perception of Severe Asthma in Korea: A Questionnaire Survey

Mi Ae Kim et al. Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2021 May.

Abstract

The Working Group on Severe Asthma of the Korean Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology recently published an expert opinion paper on the management of severe asthma in Korea. When developing a consensus, the working group encountered several diagnostic and treatment issues and decided to perform a questionnaire survey of Korean specialists with regard to severe asthma. An e-mail with a uniform resource locator link to the questionnaire was sent to 121 asthma specialists, of whom 44.6% responded. The most commonly accepted definitions of severe asthma were a history of fatal exacerbation or an asthma-triggered need for mechanical ventilation, 3-4 oral corticosteroid (OCS) bursts/year, and maintenance of OCS therapy for 3-6 months per year. Before diagnosing severe asthma, most physicians contemplate chest computed tomography, seek to control chronic rhinosinusitis, and consider poor inhaler compliance. For patients with uncontrolled severe asthma accompanied by type 2 (T2)-high inflammation, most biologics available in Korea were considered appropriate, but gaps were apparent in terms of T2-low asthma treatments. These findings about specialist perception of diagnosis and treatment of severe asthma will inform the use of emerging new drugs and facilitate personalized therapy.

Keywords: Asthma; biological products; consensus; diagnosis; disease management; standards; surveys and questionnaires; therapeutics.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no financial or other issues that might lead to a conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Proportions of agreement (mean scores of over 3) in terms of defining ACO in patients with severe asthma.
ACO, asthma-Chronic Obstructive Respiratory Disease overlap; FEV1, forced expiratory volume in 1 second; FVC, forced vital capacity; CT, computed tomography.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. A graphical summary of specialists' perceptions of severe asthma.
ER, emergency room; OCS, oral corticosteroid; FEV1, forced expiratory volume in 1 second; CT, computed tomography; IgE, immunoglobulin E; ANCA, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies; CRS, chronic rhinosinusitis; ICS, inhaled corticosteroid; LABA, long-acting beta-2 agonist; IL5, interleukin 5; IL5R, interleukin 5 receptor; IL4R, interleukin 4 receptor; PDE4, phosphodiesterase 4; TSLP, thymic stromal lymphopoietin.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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