Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Asthma is often associated with various comorbidities, which may affect its clinical intensity and severity. The mechanisms of adult–onset asthma may include several metabolic and inflammatory components that are common to the other diseases such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular diseases and psychiatric diseases.

Objectives: Assessment of asthma symptom control and QoL in a subgroup of asthmatic patients with metabolic disorders (MD) residing in Greece, who were treated for 6 months with a Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) of Budesonide/Formoterol (Elpenhaler).

Methods: Multicenter, prospective, non–interventional, observational study (NCT03033758) of 1, 230 asthmatic patients, not previously treated with FDC ICS/LABA, from whom 1, 028 (83.6%) had not any MD. A subgroup of 199 patients (16.2%) with MD (i.e. obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and dyslipidaemia) among other comorbidities, was evaluated for asthma control and QoL using validated Greek versions of Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) and Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (MiniAQLQ), respectively.

Results: At baseline, the median (IQR) ACQ and MiniAQLQ score were 2.45 (1.71, 3.14) and 4.21 (3.47, 5.07) for the group of patients with MD whereas the median (IQR) ACQ and MiniAQLQ score were 2.13 (1.43, 2.71) and 4.65 (4.00, 5.47) for the group of patients without MD. After 6 months, we noticed a significant decrease in ACQ score (Z = –11.450, P < 0.001), a significant increase in MiniAQLQ score (Z = –11.776, P < 0.001) and a significant, strong, negative, linear correlation between the change in ACQ (–1.61) and MiniAQLQ (1.93) scores (rs = –0.76, P < 0.001) among visits for the group of patients with MD. In the group of patients without MD, similar results were observed.

Conclusions: At baseline, asthmatic patients with MD and especially obese patients and those who had T2DM, were less controlled and had worse QoL than patients without MD. Six months of treatment with FDC Budesonide/Formoterol, Elpenhaler resulted in a significant improvement both in asthma control and QoL in these two groups of patients.