Cost-effectiveness of asthma therapy: a comprehensive review.

BACKGROUND: Asthma has an important impact in terms of both direct and indirect costs. In Europe, the disease costs € 19 000 million a year. Moreover, the cost is greater among patients with severe uncontrolled asthma and is even higher when the work productivity is also taken into account. Improved control of the disease results in cost savings. In this context, cost-effectiveness and cost-utility studies offer important information for clinicians in deciding the best treatment options for asthmatic patients and contribute to ensure an efficient use of the available healthcare resources. METHODS: An English and Spanish literature search using electronic search engines (PubMed and EMBASE) was conducted in peer-review journals, from 2009 to June 2014. In order to perform the search for the most suitable and representative articles, key words were selected ("asthma", "cost-effectiveness", "cost-utility", "QALY", "cost-benefit", "economic impact of asthma" "healthcare cost", "asthma treatment" and "work productivity with asthma"). RESULTS: Two-hundred forty-three titles and abstracts were identified by the primary literature search. The full text of the potentially 76 eligible papers was reviewed, and 22 articles were qualified to be finally included. CONCLUSIONS: This article provides a comprehensive review on the evidence of cost-effectiveness of asthma treatments derived from the published literature and offers an overall summary of the socioeconomic burden of asthma and its relationship with the degree of disease control. Management alternatives, such as the use of combination therapy with ICS/LABA or omalizumab, when administered according to their current therapeutic indications, have been shown to be cost-effective.

In Search of an Association Between Genotype and Phenotype in Hereditary Angioedema due to C1-INH Deficiency.

Hereditary angioedema due to C1 inhibitor deficiency (C1-INH-HAE) is caused by mutations affecting the SERPING1 gene. Adult patients (≥ 18 years old) diagnosed with C1-INH-HAE were clustered according to a modified SERPING1 gene mutation classification [5]. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were studied. Published manuscripts on the genotype/phenotype relationship were reviewed. Eighty-eight patients participated in the study, with 78 having a classifiable mutation. We compared the data in the 3 largest groups: class 0 only (n = 32), class II only (n = 18), class III only (n = 22). Antigenic C4 and C1 inhibitors were higher in class II (p = 0.008 and p = 0.02, respectively), and facial attacks in the last 6 months were more frequent in class III (p = 0.04)). All the other differences were non-significant. Twelve manuscripts on phenotype/genotype correlation were found: missense mutations in SERPING1 gene were associated with delay in disease onset and lower severity score in some studies, whereas the CC F12-C46T/C polymorphism produced earlier disease onset. Our study shows minimal differences regarding clinical phenotype in patients with class 0, II, and III SERPING1 gene mutations, with a tendency to class III having a more severe phenotype. The study should be performed in a larger sample to confirm if they are significant.We propose that larger multicenter, international studies are performed, comparing different SERPING1 gene mutation classifications, combining polymorphisms in other involved genes (kallikrein-kinin system, regulation of vasculature, plasminogen activation) and using different variables and clinical scores to assess C1-INH-HAE disease activity and/or severity in order to study possible genotype/phenotype relationships.

Dupilumab in the management of moderate-to-severe asthma: the data so far.

Severe asthma constitutes illness in a relatively small proportion of all patients with asthma, but it is a major public health problem - with considerable effect on morbidity, mortality, as well as a high burden on health care resources. Regardless of effective treatments being widely available and the existence of treatment guidelines, a large population of severe asthma cases remain uncontrolled. Achieving and maintaining asthma control in this group of patients is, therefore, of utmost importance. The recognition of distinct inflammatory phenotypes within this population has driven the development of targeted biological therapies - particularly, selective targeted monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). It is noteworthy that in approximately 50% of these patients, there is strong evidence of the pathogenic role of T helper type-2 (Th2) cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13, orchestrating the eosinophilic and allergic inflammatory processes. Among the recently developed antiasthma biologic drugs, the mAb dupilumab is very promising given its ability to inhibit the biological effects of both IL-4 and IL-13. In this review, we focused on IL-4 and IL-13, as these interleukins are considered to play a key role in the pathophysiology of asthma, and on dupilumab, an anti-IL-4 receptor human mAb, as a forthcoming treatment for uncontrolled severe asthma in the near future.