London, Aug 27: New research points that asthma, which affects people worldwide, can be classified into mild and severe variety, and each type responds to different kinds of treatment. The findings published in the European Respiratory Journal are based on a study of more than 300 patients from nine countries and are seen as a boost towards efforts to devise better drugs and treatments for people suffering severe asthma.
The researchers pointed out that people with mild asthma generally respond quite well to treatment, in contrast to those suffering from severe asthma, who are more prone to suffer attacks and need emergency medical attention. The study funded by the European Union, identified patients with mild to moderate asthma and also those reeling under severe asthma. They observed that those with mild asthma were able to control their symptoms with low doses of inhaled corticosteroids, drugs routinely prescribed for asthmatic people.

However, in spite of taking heavy doses of inhaled drugs, very few plagued with severe asthma, were able to keep their symptoms under control and were more vulnerable to asthma attacks. Their performance in daily chores also hit the bottom.


Blood tests carried out in both groups revealed different levels of key chemicals in their blood, inducing the experts to believe mild asthma and severe asthma are very different and may even be two different diseases. The study also revealed that women were more susceptible to the attacks of severe asthma.


According to the UK's National Asthma Campaign, further research is needed to attain greater understanding and dispel doubts whether severe asthma is at one end of a spectrum with mild-moderate asthma, or it is actually a different condition with different inflammatory processes.


"It is likely that there are several mechanisms responsible for increased asthma severity and it may be that different mechanisms operate in different groups of people," a spokeswoman said.

Bureau Report