Biologic therapy in severe asthma: An update

Severe refractory asthma: an update.

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease in which adequate asthma control cannot be achieved in a substantial proportion despite currently available treatment possibilities. This subgroup has been defined as "severe refractory" asthma. Over the past years considerable progress has been made regarding a more exact definition of severe refractory asthma. A systematic approach to evaluate the asthma pati...

Biologic therapy for autoimmune diseases: an update

Biologic therapies for rheumatologic diseases, which are targeted at molecules involved in the mechanisms of the immune system, provide an alternative to the existing treatment methods of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and other immunosuppressive medications. However, the current drawbacks of biologic therapies, including the inconvenience of intravenous administration, the high costs o...

Biologic cut steroid dose in severe asthma

Biologic targeted therapy in allergic asthma.

OBJECTIVE To review the structure, function, clinical utility, and safety of current biologic targeted therapies being used for the treatment of asthma. DATA SOURCES Medical literature obtained from PubMed and OVID searches from June to November 2013. STUDY SELECTIONS Studies were selected based on article impact, relevance, and clinical significance. Particular emphasis was placed on artic...

Racial differences in biologic predictors of severe asthma: Data from the Severe Asthma Research Program.

BACKGROUND Biologic factors are known to contribute to asthma severity. It is unknown whether these factors differentially contribute to asthma severity in black compared with white subjects. OBJECTIVE We sought to assess the extent to which racial disparities between black and white subjects with severe asthma are attributable to physiologic, immunoinflammatory, and sociodemographic variable...