Adults with severe asthma may have sudden worsening shortness of breath that results in their going to Emergency Department for urgent care. Emergency Room visits for asthma management across Alberta have been reviewed and it has been found that adults frequently need to return for repeated worsening. This is a large drain on health care resources as well as being very distressing for individuals with asthma. Occasionally this results in admission to hospital and rarely may lead to death. People are often treated with steroids to try to prevent the need for Emergency Room visits even though steroid medications have many long term bad side effects. A new medication for patients considered to have severe asthma has been recently approved by Health Canada. This medication, Tezepelumab, is a monthly injection and it helps control asthma in adults regardless of the underlying cause. The study will examine if starting Tezepelumab, compared with a placebo, in the Emergency Room will help settle symptoms of asthma and prevent future worsening requiring repeated Emergency Room visits or the need for courses of outpatient steroid medications.
All patients with a physician-diagnosed history of asthma and a history of a moderate or severe exacerbation of asthma presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) with an acute exacerbation of asthma will be reviewed by a study coordinator. From this population, subjects with at least 3-month history of prescription for a high dose inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) plus a reliever medication such as a long-acting beta2 agonist (LABA), long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) or a leukotriene receptor antagonist (LRTA) will be approached for study enrolment while still within the ED. Following informed consent, subject will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either Tezepelumab 210 mg S/Q Q4W or to a marching placebo. The proportion of subjects returning to ED for an exacerbation of asthma by Day-90 will serve as the primary study outcome. After Day-90 subjects will be entered into an open-label study with all receiving Tezepelumab 210 mg S/Q Q4W. A key secondary outcome will be the proportion of subjects returning to ED for an exacerbation of asthma by Day-180. Other secondary outcomes will include Alarmin expression, ACQ-5, FEV1 as well as study drug safety and tolerability
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
100
Tezepelumab 210 mg (1.91 ml) subcutaneous every 4 weeks. Randomized Control Trial 90 days with Tezepelumab/ Matching Placebo dosing on Day 0, Day 30 and Day 60. Open-label extension study from Day 90 to Day 180 with Tezepelumab dosing at Day 90
Placebo 1.91 ml subcutaneous every 4 weeks. Randomized Control Trial 90 days with Tezepelumab/ Matching Placebo dosing on Day 0, Day 30 and Day 60.
Sturgeon Community Hospital
St. Albert, Alberta, Canada
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Ca-ab, Canada
Proportion of patients who have moderate and severe exacerbations of asthma
Numbers of moderate and severe exacerbations at Day 90 post-treatment in subjects treated with standard care and S/Q Tezepelumab or treated with standard care and placebo
Time frame: 90 Days post-treatment
Numbers of subjects returning to ED
Numbers of subjects returning to ED by Day-90 in those treated with standard care and S/Q Tezepelumab or treated with standard care and placebo.
Time frame: 90 Days post-treatment
Proportion of subjects returning to ED
Proportion of subjects returning to ED by Day-30 and Day-60 in those treated with standard care and S/Q Tezepelumab or treated with standard care and placebo.
Time frame: 60 Days post-treatment
Asthma control Questionnaire (ACQ-5)
ACQ-5 at Day-90 in subjects treated with standard care and S/Q Tezepelumab or treated with standard care and placebo ACQ-5 greater than 1.5 units in subjects treated with standard care and S/Q Tezepelumab or treated with standard care and placebo ACQ-5 less than 0.75 units in subjects treated with standard care and S/Q Tezepelumab or treated with standard care and placebo ACQ (Asthma Control Questionnaire). Each question is scored on a scale of 0 to 6, with 0 representing excellent control and 6 representing extremely poor control. The final score is the mean of the five responses.
Time frame: 90 Days post-treatment
TSLP levels
TSLP levels at the time of ED presentation
Time frame: Day 1
IL-25 levels
IL-25 levels at the time of ED presentation
Time frame: Day 1
Il-33 levels
IL-33 levels at the time of ED presentation
Time frame: Day 1
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