Are peripheral blood eosinophil counts a guideline for omalizumab treatment? STELLAIR says no!

Biologics for the treatment of severe asthma are assuming an ever expanding and important role to gain disease control when current therapeutics are not effective [1, 2]. Although the number of asthma patients with severe disease is relatively small, 10–15%, when compared to the overall prevalence of asthma, the burden of disease in this group is large from many perspectives including compromises to lifestyle, risks for recurrent and severe exacerbations, hospitalisations, unscheduled care needs, potential for adverse effects from medications, and medical costs. Therefore, severe asthma carries a dominant disease burden for the affected patient [3, 4].
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Editorials Source Type: research