Severe Asthma Research Program
A National Institutes of Health/ National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute sponsored network
Ross Myers, MD; Co-investigator
Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Site Coordinators:
University of Virginia
Kristin Wavell
Phone: (434)924-6874
Email: Kww7d@virginia.edu
Cleveland Clinic
Marybeth Boyle
Phone: (216) 455-1756
Email: Boylem2@ccf.org
Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital:
Laurie Logan, RN
Phone: (216)844-7927
Email: Laurie.Logan@UHhospitals.org
Laura Veri
Phone: (216)844-2043Email: Laura.veri@UHhospitals.org
Kristie Ross, MD; Co-investigator
Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
The Virginia/Cleveland Partnership includes sites for adult participants at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH and at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. It also includes sites for pediatric participants at University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, OH.
Through the Cleveland and Virginia collaboration we have discovered three things that are important to understanding your severe asthma.
First, boys are more likely to have severe asthma than girls; however, after adolescence, it’s women who are more likely to have severe asthma than men. Our studies in the SARP program suggest that this is because, in part, certain male hormones may benefit lung function in asthma as boys go through adolescence. Also, certain female hormones may worsen lung function. This is not a big surprise, because we already know that another type of hormone, cortisol, dramatically affects asthma. However, it provides some important new insights about what will happen to your asthma over time, and it also may provide some important new, personalized treatment options.
Second, we have been surprised to find evidence that the risk of severe asthma and asthma hospitalizations decreases significantly in both genders in late adolescence and early adulthood. We are working to figure out why this is. When we understand this improvement, we believe it will help us to prevent severe asthma in older patients.
Third, the damaging effects of severe asthma on the lung differ, patient to patient. We have developed new tests to identify which abnormal chemistry most affects the lung of each individual patient. Our evidence suggests that these tests will help patients avoid wasting time and money using treatments that don’t work well, and will help lung doctors focus on using treatments that will be most effective for each individual with severe asthma.
Site Investigators:
Virginia/ Cleveland
Benjamin Gaston, MD; Principal Investigator
Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
James Chmiel, MD; Co-Investigator
Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Serpil Erzurum, MD; Co-Principal investigator
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio 44195
Sumita Khatri, MD; Co-investigator
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio 44195
Suzy A.A. Comhair, PhD; Co-investigator
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio 44195
Raed Dweik, MD; Co-invetigator
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio 44195
W. Gerald Teague, MD; Co-Principal investigator
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22908-0386
Anne-Marie Irani, MD; Co-Investigator
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia 23284