Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-1-2019
Journal
Thorax
Volume
74
Issue
11
First Page
1087
Last Page
1088
URL with Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2019-213415
Abstract
Ventilation heterogeneity in asthma could be due to many reasons. Luminal obstruction due to inflammatory cells or mucus, smooth muscle constriction and airway wall thickness could all contribute individually or collectively to ventilation heterogeneity. Interleukin-4 and interleukin-13, acting through the common interleukin-4 receptor, have the potential to modulate all of these features of asthma.1 Inhaled hyperpolarised gas MRI provides a way to regionally visualise and quantify the functional consequence of these features.2 Dupilumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody directed against the alpha-subunit of the interleukin-4 receptor.3 Here, we report a severe asthmatic who showed significant improvement and normalisation of MRI ventilation heterogeneity and associated clinical and physiological variables with dupilumab treatment, suggesting that dupilumab modulated various aspects of luminal airway obstruction.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Citation of this paper:
Svenningsen S, Haider EA, Eddy RL, et al. Normalisation of MRI ventilation heterogeneity in severe asthma by dupilumab. Thorax 2019;74:1087-1088.
Notes
This article was initially published by the BMJ Publishing Group & British Thoracic Society and is openly available on the publisher's website at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2019-213415