University of Wisconsin Severe Asthma Research Program III

We have shown that patients with severe asthma have heterogeneous regional ventilation defects and air trapping. Some of these defects are persistent, while others can be provoked with virus-induced exacerbations or bronchial challenge and recur in the same general areas on repeated challenge, suggesting localized airway dysfunction. In preliminary studies, inflammatory parameters tended to be more prominent in segments that showed ventilation defects on imaging. Therefore, we hypothesize that asthma exacerbations, in some patients, are associated with incomplete recovery and activation of airway inflammatory cells in a regional distribution. This leads to enhanced airway injury with airway dysfunction as reflected by ventilation defects and air trapping, and a more generalized increase in disease severity. To evaluate this hypothesis we propose the following specific aims: 1. To refine phenotyping of severe asthma using new variables from multiple domains in a large longitudinal patient cohort; and to determine the contribution of asthma exacerbations to disease progression. 2. To characterize regional obstructive patterns at baseline and their relationship to changes in pulmonary function; and to determine how incremental changes in regional airway dysfunction after asthma exacerbations may contribute to severe asthma. 3. To determine the contribution of established and novel biomarkers (YKL-40, vWF, \& P-selectin), in refining the severe asthma phenotypes and the role of inflammatory cells in causing airway injury following virus-induced asthma exacerbations with subsequent development of ventilation defects.