Induced sputum and response to glucocorticoids

Jerry Dolovich has generated substantial new work that has had an international impact on the understanding and treatment of asthma and other airway diseases. For this, he is recognized as a Distinguished Clinician of the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology. I have focused on some of this recent work with us using induced sputum to measure indices of airway inflammation noninvasively. The results illustrate that sputum eosinophilia (1) does not necessarily correlate with the severity of symptoms of severity of abnormalities of airway function, (2) does not always occur in exacerbations of asthma, and (3) may be a predictor clinical benefit to steroid treatment, which will be useful in practice. The observations imply that airway inflammation needs to be measured to understand the pathogenesis, pathophysiology, and treatment of asthma and other airway diseases.