Patient Information

Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP)
A National Institutes of Health/ National Heart, Lung & Blood Institutes
sponsored network

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Welcome Asthma Patients, Caregivers and Study Participants

The SARP Mission:

The mission of SARP is to improve the understanding of severe asthma through integrated study of its clinical “phenotypic” and biological features and to evaluate their changes over time. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to promote better treatments. SARP is not a clinical trial of new or old drugs. Rather, its purpose is to gather an extraordinary amount of information ranging from responses to simple questions, to lung function, allergy and blood testing, as well as genetic and lung inflammation testing. We will also examine your response to a corticosteroid (like prednisone) shot. Finally, we would like to follow you over 3 yrs of time or more to see what happens to your asthma. This information, gathered over a series of 7-10 visits, is ARCHIVED along with information from thousands of others. The data are analyzed to improve our understanding of this disease and focus the development of new drugs targeted specifically to severe asthma. Your participation in SARP allows your information to be joined with hundreds of others to get a much "bigger picture" of the causes and processes of severe asthma.

Even if you do not have severe asthma, you may qualify for participation in SARP...

You will likely qualify for participation in SARP as a severe asthmatic if you:

1.    Have been diagnosed with asthma by a physician
2.    Require high or continuous doses of asthma medications, such as Advair, Symbicort, prednisone or
       medrol
3.    Still have asthma symptoms on a regular basis
4.    Have had frequent or severe exacerbations of asthma (requiring prednisone, ER visits, hospitalizations)
5.    Are not currently smoking and have smoked less than 5-10 years total
6.    Are 6 yrs of age and older
7.    Have Evidence of airway liability, including either:
          1. FEV1 bronchodilator reversibility ≥ 12% (if the subject is 6-17 years of age, FEF25-75 reversibility ≥
              30% will also suffice), or
         2. Airway hyper-responsiveness reflected by a methacholine PC20 ≤16 mg/mL.

You may also qualify for participation in SARP as a “comparative” patient with mild asthma:

You must be diagnosed with asthma, be between 6 and 75 yrs of age and not be currently smoking or have smoked for more than 5-10 yrs.

If you think you may qualify - click on "Participate in SARP" button on the left!

Additional Resources:

Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America   www.aafa.org
American Lung Association                                                          www.lung.org
American Thoracic Society                                                    www.thoracic.org
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology        www.aaaai.org