The tragedy of Asthma fatalities, some 5,000 plus yearly in the United States alone, has been a continued source of frustration in the medical community. This tragedy continues, despite major advances made in the basic understanding of Asthma and the availability of improved medications.

Patients with repeated severe Asthma attacks are known to be at-risk, but a a significant number of these fatalities are unexpected. It seems reasonable to focus optimal and concentrated medical resources on these at-risk patients to minimize this problem. Identification for these at-risk patients is therefore of crucial importance. The outstanding NEJM paper by Kikuchi et al has defined a practical test for this problem, and Sierra Biotechnology believes we have improved on his method.

Dr. Kikuchi and others have clearly shown there are a number of patients who have a diminished awareness to the sensation of dyspnea, as well as a reduced ability to recognize they are becoming hypoxic and retaining carbon dioxide with ventilatory failure. Essentially these patients develop progressively severe Asthma, and are unaware of how seriously ill they have become. Therefore, they delay seeking medical attention and develop extreme Asthma, and sometimes with fatal results.

Tests for diminished awareness of hypoxia or carbon dioxide retention are laborious, essentially research tests, and not suitable for mass screening of the Asthma population. However, a non-invasive test using an inspiratory resistance load to mimic the airway resistance sistuation of an Asthma attack does provide a practical test to identify these at-risk patients. This is the basis of the Abnormal Dyspnea Perception Test from Sierra Biotechnology.

Note that this test can also be used as a general test for the COPD population.

As dyspnea is the dominant complaint in COPD, does it not seem reasonable to measure dyspnea, to define illness severity and evaluate whether or not treatment modalities are effective?

See the section on Dyspnea Perception Detection System for background and methodology. Go to Dyspnea Perception

See the section on construction and a parts list to make this system. Go to Construction and Parts