There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Long-term oral corticosteroid (OCS) therapy is associated with significant burden
on patients and healthcare resources; treatments that may help reduce their use are
important to improve asthma management.
French and German clinicians prescribing omalizumab for >16 weeks to patients with
severe persistent allergic asthma collected OCS use data. OCS use was recorded at
baseline and at a non-specific time point beyond 16 weeks from initiation of omalizumab.
The number of asthma exacerbations (FEV(1) < 60% of personal best, requiring OCS burst
and unscheduled doctor/emergency visit or hospitalization) and asthma-related hospitalizations
during the 12-months prior to omalizumab treatment and during the observation period
were also recorded.
Overall, 346 patients were treated with omalizumab for >16 weeks. Of these, 166 (48.0%)
were receiving maintenance OCS (France, n = 64; Germany, n = 102). Following omalizumab
therapy, 84 (50.6%) patients on OCS at baseline reduced/stopped OCS dose at the time
of data collection; 34 (20.5%) stopped and 50 (30.1%) reduced OCS. In all patients
receiving maintenance OCS at baseline, mean reduction from baseline in daily OCS dose
was 29.6% (7.1 mg prednisolone). In patients who reduced/stopped maintenance OCS,
mean reduction from baseline in daily OCS dose was 74.3% (15.4 mg prednisolone). Reductions
in exacerbations and hospitalizations were observed from the 12-months prior to baseline
in patients at the time of data collection, irrespective of change in OCS dose.
European real-life experience demonstrates the OCS-sparing potential of omalizumab
in some patients with severe allergic (IgE-mediated) asthma.