[Therapeutic effect of omalizumab on 10 patients with severe persistent asthma].

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic effect of omalizumab was studied in Japanese patients with severe asthma. METHODS: Omalizumab was administered to 10 patients with bronchial asthma diagnosed as severe or very severe persistent asthma according to Asthma Prevention Management Guideline 2009, Japan (JGL 2009). Therapeutic efficacy was assessed 16 weeks after starting the treatment using Asthma Control Test (ACT), pulmonary function tests, and the peripheral eosinophil counts. In addition, number of acute exacerbation in 16-week period after starting the treatment was compared with that in 16-week period before the treatment and the previous year respectively. The questionnaire whether or not to continue omalizumab was conducted 16 weeks after starting the treatment. RESULTS: The total ACT score rose from 14.8 to 19.1 and peripheral eosinophil count decreased from 355.2 /microl to 209.8 /microl after starting the treatment. Peak expiratory flow and forced expiratory volume in one second also increased, though differences were insignificant. Number of acute exacerbation decreased from 3.0 times before the treatment and 2.4 times the same time last year to 1.3 times after starting the treatment. The result of the questionnaire revealed that patients wanted to discontinue because of financial burden, ambulant burden, and side effect, but no one responded to be ineffective. In fact, only the one discontinued omalizumab. CONCLUSION: Omalizumab produced improvement in subject symptoms and reduced acute exacerbation in patients with severe or very severe persistent asthma. The future challenge is to reduce financial and ambulant burden on patients.