What´s Fixed Airflow Obstruction?

Asthma is a chronic condition of the respiratory system that causes hypersensitivity and reversible inflammation of the airways resulting in breathing difficulties (Levy et al., 2006).
One of the features of the disease is fixed airflow obstruction which is where the patient’s FEV1/FVC ratio is less than 0.7. The reduction of this ratio is caused by parenchymal and airway damage resulting from chronic inflammation (Nice.org.uk, 2010). Fixed airflow obstruction is more commonly found in severe asthma with a prevalence of approximately 49%. Asthma patients that developed the disease during adulthood have been found to be at a threefold risk of suffering fixed airflow obstruction, but it has also been found that patients with fixed airflow obstruction
These eosinophils are known to positively influence the development of fibrosis in the airways by the stimulation of fibroblast replication. They also produce the cytokine TGF-1 which contribute to airway fibrosis in asthmatic patients (ten Brinke et al.,
If the patient is adequately sensitive to oral glucocorticoids such as prednisolone (Alangari, 2014), then these should continue being prescribed to them, but if the patient suffers from glucocorticoid-sensitive asthma, then drugs that desensitize GCRs by inhibiting them may prove to be beneficial to them. The action of these drugs would promote the binding of glucocorticoid hormones to any present GCRs by reducing the competitive binding to the alternate isoform, thus increasing their effect. This would decrease the levels of sputum eosinophils aiding the prevention of fixed airflow obstruction, or maintain it at low levels at the very