Identification of asthma clusters in two independent Korean adult asthma cohorts.
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.
Dept of Internal Medicine, Asthma Centre, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Tae-Bum
TB
Kim
An-Soo
AS
Jang
Hyouk-Soo
HS
Kwon
Jong-Sook
JS
Park
Yoon-Seok
YS
Chang
Sang-Heon
SH
Cho
Byoung Whui
BW
Choi
Jung-Won
JW
Park
Dong-Ho
DH
Nam
Ho-Joo
HJ
Yoon
Young-Joo
YJ
Cho
Hee-Bom
HB
Moon
You Sook
YS
Cho
Choon-Sik
CS
Park
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D044466:Asian People; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012907:Smoking; D055815:Young Adult