• Yinhe Feng, Xiaoyin Liu, Yubin Wang, Rao Du, and Hui Mao.
• Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China.
• Chin. Med. J. 2023 Jul 5; 136 (13): 151315221513-1522.

AbstractAsthma is characterized by chronic airway inflammation and airway hyper-responsiveness. However, the differences in pathophysiology and phenotypic symptomology make a diagnosis of "asthma" too broad hindering individualized treatment. Four asthmatic inflammatory phenotypes have been identified based on inflammatory cell profiles in sputum: eosinophilic, neutrophilic, paucigranulocytic, and mixed-granulocytic. Paucigranulocytic asthma may be one of the most common phenotypes in stable asthmatic patients, yet it remains much less studied than the other inflammatory phenotypes. Understanding of paucigranulocytic asthma in terms of phenotypic discrimination, distribution, stability, surrogate biomarkers, underlying pathophysiology, clinical characteristics, and current therapies is fragmented, which impedes clinical management of patients. This review brings together existing knowledge and ongoing research about asthma phenotypes, with a focus on paucigranulocytic asthma, in order to present a comprehensive picture that may clarify specific inflammatory phenotypes and thus improve clinical diagnoses and disease management.Copyright © 2023 The Chinese Medical Association, produced by Wolters Kluwer, Inc. under the CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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