Omalizumab as add‐on therapy in a patient with severe asthma and OSA

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) syndrome, the most frequent sleep‐disordered breathing, is a comorbidity of asthma, whose prevalence covers about 49.5% of asthmatic adult patients. A 61‐year‐old female patient, affected by severe allergic asthma and obesity, started treatment with omalizumab and underwent polysomnography showing a severe OSA pattern (apnoea/hypopnoea index (AHI): 72.7). After six months, she showed functional improvement and good asthma symptoms control and underwent a new polygraphy for the persistence of the night symptoms which showed an ameliorated, despite still severe, OSA pattern (AHI: 31.9). The patient obtained complete polygraphic normalization after adequate positive airway pressure (PAP) titration. While bronchodilator efficacy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)/OSA overlap syndrome has been proven in raising nocturnal oxygen saturation, there is no such evidence about biological therapy in patients affected by severe asthma and OSA. This is the first documented case report that demonstrates a possible role of omalizumab in improving the OSA pattern in a patient affected by severe asthma and OSA.

Keywords

• Biological therapy
• lung function
• obstructive sleep apnoea
• polysomnography
• severe asthma