Photo Credit: Alena Butusava

Bronchial biopsy (BB) appears more precise than score of T₂ inflammation (T₂ score) in predicting response to biologic therapy for severe uncontrolled asthma (SUA), according to study results published in Chest. For the study, Cristina Gómez Bellvert, MD, and colleagues evaluated BB according to a previously validated pathologic score (PS) and compared BB with a T₂ score that included blood eosinophil count and FeNO in predicting biologic response among patients with SUA. A total of 78 patients were enrolled and treated. PS was the only variable independently associated with biologic response, with patients deemed “super responders” showing significantly higher PSs. Poor response to biologic therapy was associated with low tissue eosinophila (<10 eosinophils/field). “Tissue eosinophilia is the main driver of this predictive capacity, but there are other items in the PS related to bronchial remodeling that might be contributing to the identification of response to biological therapy,” Dr. Gómez Bellvert and colleagues wrote.