Khaberni - A research team has developed an innovative method for predicting asthma attacks with high accuracy, according to a recent study published in the journal "Nature Communications".
Asthma is one of the most widespread chronic diseases in the world, affecting more than 500 million people, and asthma attacks, also known as "asthma flare-ups," are a major cause of morbidity and rising healthcare costs.
However, doctors currently lack reliable biomarkers to identify patients who are most at risk of future attacks, as current methods often fail to distinguish between stable patients and those prone to severe attacks.
Innovative Approach
The researchers analyzed data from more than 2,500 participants from three large asthma groups, benefiting from electronic medical records accumulated over decades. The team relied on "metabolomics" technology to measure small molecules in the blood of people with asthma.
They found a significant relationship between two types of lipid compounds in the blood, "sphingolipids" and steroids, and asthma control.
The study showed that the ratio of "sphingolipids" to steroids could predict the risk of attacks over five years, and in some cases, the predictive ability distinguished the duration until the first attack between high-risk and low-risk groups by nearly a full year.
The Importance of the Discovery for Patients
Jessica Lasky-Su, associate professor at "Mass General Brigham" and "Harvard Medical School" said: "One of the biggest challenges in treating asthma is the lack of an effective way to know which patients will have a severe attack soon, and our discovery solves this problem, as using the balance measure between "sphingolipids" and steroids, we can accurately identify patients at risk by 90%, allowing doctors to intervene before an attack occurs".
Craig Wheelock from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden confirmed that the ratio between the two compounds is the strongest indicator for predicting risks, and it is a method that is applicable in developing a practical and cost-effective clinical test.
The researchers believe that these results represent an important step towards precision medicine in treating asthma, as the test based on these ratios can be easily applied in standard laboratories to help doctors recognize patients who appear stable but have underlying metabolic imbalances.
However, the researchers emphasized the need for further clinical studies and economic analyses before adopting the test in actual clinical practice.
