Steroid resistant asthma.

Inspite of very safe and effective treatment, Bronchial asthmatics do not respond well in 5-10% of cases which are labelled as Refractory Asthma. Besides compliance, presence of psychogenic and trigger factors and comorbid illness, steroid insensitiveness or resistance may play a significant role in the poorly controlled/responding asthmatics. Type I Steroid resistance is due to lack of binding affinity of steroids to glucocorticoid receptors and may respond to higher doses of steroids while type II steroid resistance is because of reduced number of cells with glucocorticoid receptors, which is very rare and do not respond to even higher doses of systemic steroids and these cases require alternative/novel therapies. Future treatment of steroid resistant and severe refractory asthma is likely to be targeted towards cytokines and Bronchial Thermoplasty.