Biomarker defined infective and inflammatory asthma exacerbation phenotypes in hospitalized adults: clinical impact and phenotype stability at recurrent exacerbation.

AE phenotyping in hospitalized asthma patients, based on CRP and blood eosinophils, revealed prolonged hospital stay in infective AEs and a higher risk of recurrent AE requiring hospitalization in viral versus bacterial AEs. Moreover, infective, and inflammatory AE phenotypes were rather stable at recurrent AE. Our results suggest a role for biomarker guided phenotyping of AEs of asthma.