Peculiarities of Mild Asthma in Russia: the Results of SYGMA2 Study

Aim. Patients with mild asthma may experience severe exacerbations. This analysis was conducted to investigate regional peculiarities of mild asthma population in Russia. Materials and methods. The SYGMA2 is a double-blind multinational study involving adult patients with mild asthma (n=4176). We conducted an open-label descriptive analysis of the baseline characteristics of the Russian group (n=579) of SYGMA2 trial comparing to SYGMA2 population from other countries. The subanalysis was descriptive only, and no hypothesis were tested. Results. The Russian population of patients with mild asthma was comparable to the rest of countries in terms of demographic characteristics, smoking status and duration of asthma. The spirometric parameters in the Russian group was slightly worse than in the other population. At the study entry 48% of Russian patients had symptom control on maintenance therapy, but 52% were uncontrolled on short-acting bronchodilators. While in other countries this ratio was inverse (55/45%). More patients with mild asthma in the Russian group had at least one severe exacerbation in the previous year (30.1% vs 20.7% in other countries). Conclusion. We revealed a delayed prescription of controller therapy and overuse of short-acting bronchodilators in the Russian group of mild asthma patients, that may increase risk of asthma non-control and severe exacerbation.