Researchers at Mass General Brigham and Karolinska Institutet have identified a new method to predict asthma exacerbations with a high degree of accuracy.
Researchers at Mass General Brigham and Karolinska Institutet have identified a new method to predict asthma exacerbations with a high degree of accuracy. The study is published in Nature Communications.
Asthma is one of the world's most common chronic diseases, affecting over 500 million people. Asthma exacerbations – commonly known as asthma attacks – are a major cause of disease morbidity and healthcare costs. Despite the prevalence of asthma, clinicians currently lack reliable biomarkers to identify which patients are at high risk for future attacks. Current methods often fail to distinguish between stable patients and those prone to severe exacerbations.
A Balance Between Two Metabolites
The study analysed data from three large asthma cohorts totalling over 2,500 participants, backed by decades of electronic medical records. Researchers used a high throughput approach called metabolomics to measures small molecules in the blood of individuals with asthma. They identified an important relationship between two classes of metabolites, sphingolipids and steroids, and asthma control. Specifically, they identified that sphingolipid to steroid ratios could predict exacerbation risk over a 5-year period. In some cases, the model could differentiate the time-to-first exacerbation between high- and low-risk groups by nearly a full year.
Read More: Karolinska Institutet
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