G.W. Canonica, MD F. Blasi, MD, PhD G.E. Carpagnano, MD, PhD G. Guida, MD E. Heffler, MD, PhD
P. Paggiaro, MD on behalf of SANI
Abstract
Severe Asthma affects about 10% of the asthmatic population, and it is characterized by a low lung function and a higher count of blood leucocytes, mainly eosinophils.To date, various definitions are used in clinical practice and in the literature to identify asthma remission: clinical remission, inflammatory remission, and complete remission. The aim of this work is to highlight a consensus for asthma remission using a Delphi method.In the context of SANI (Severe Asthma Network Italy), accounting for 57 Severe Asthma Centers and more then 2200 patients, a Board of six expert drafted a list of candidate statements in a questionnaire, which has been revised to minimize redundancies and ensure clear and consistent wording for the first round (R1) of the analysis. 32 statements have been included in the R1 questionnaire, and then submitted to a panel of 80 experts, which used a 5-points Likert scale to measure their agreement to each statement. Then, an Interim Analysis of R1 data have been performed, items were discussed and considered to produce a consistent questionnaire for the round 2 (R2) of the analysis. After this, the Board set the R2 questionnaire, which included only the important key topics. Panelists have been asked to vote the statements in the R2 questionnaire afterwards. During R2, the criteria of complete clinical remission (the absence of need for OCS, symptoms, exacerbations/attacks, and a pulmonary function stability) and those of partial clinical remission (the absence of need for OCS, and 2 out of 3 criteria: the absence of symptoms, exacerbations/attacks, and a pulmonary stability) were confirmed.This SANI Delphi Analysis defined a valuable, independent and easy to use tool to test the efficacy of different treatments in patients with severe asthma enrolled into the SANI registry.