Abstract
The common disease asthma is probably not a single disease, but rather a
complex of multiple, separate syndromes that overlap. Although
clinicians have recognised these different phenotypes for many years,
they have remained poorly characterised, with little known about the
underlying pathobiology contributing to them. Development of targeted
therapies for asthma, and phenotype-specific clinical trials have raised
interest in these phenotypes. Improved understanding of these phenotypes
in complex diseases such as asthma will also improve our ability to link
specific genotypes to their associated disease, which should help
development of biomarkers. However, there is no standardised method to
define asthma phenotypes. This Review analyses some of the methods that
have been used to define asthma phenotypes and proposes an integrated
method of classification to improve our understanding of these
phenotypes.
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