Identification of asthma clusters in two independent Korean adult asthma cohorts

• Published in: The European respiratory journal Vol. 41; no. 6; pp. 1308 - 1314
• Main Authors: KIM, Tae-Bum, JANG, An-Soo, CHO, Young-Joo, MOON, Hee-Bom, YOU SOOK CHO, PARK, Choon-Sik, KWON, Hyouk-Soo, PARK, Jong-Sook, CHANG, Yoon-Seok, CHO, Sang-Heon, BYOUNG WHUI CHOI, PARK, Jung-Won, NAM, Dong-Ho, YOON, Ho-Joo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Leeds Maney 01.06.2013
• Subjects: Adult; Age of Onset; Asian Continental Ancestry Group; Asthma - diagnosis; Asthma - ethnology; Asthma - therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Body Mass Index; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma; Cluster Analysis; Cohort Studies; Female; Forced Expiratory Volume; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Phenotype; Pneumology; Republic of Korea; Smoking; Young Adult; Asia; Korea; Republic of Korea; Human; Cluster analysis; Lung disease; Automatic classification; Respiratory disease; Cluster; Identification; classification; Asthma; Phenotype; Cohort study; Bronchus disease; Adult; Obstructive pulmonary disease; Public health; phenotype; cluster analysis
• ISSN: 0903-1936; 1399-3003
• DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00100811

Asthma is a heterogeneous airway disease with various clinical phenotypes. It is crucial to clearly identify clinical phenotypes to achieve better asthma management. We used cluster analysis to classify the clinical groups of 724 asthmatic patients from the Cohort for Reality and Evolution of Adult Asthma in Korea (COREA), and in 1843 subjects from another independent Korean asthma cohort of Soonchunhyang University Asthma Genome Research Centre (SCH) (Bucheon, Republic of Korea). Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed by Ward's method, followed by κ-means cluster analysis. Cluster analysis of the COREA cohort indicated four asthma subtypes: 1) smoking asthma; 2) severe obstructive asthma; 3) early-onset atopic asthma; and 4) late-onset mild asthma. An independent cluster analysis of the SCH cohort also indicated four clusters that were similar to the COREA clusters. Our results indicate that adult Korean asthma patients can be classified into four distinct clusters.