Azithromycin Treatment for Non-eosinophilic Chest Tightness Variant Asthma

Bronchial asthma (abbr. asthma) is one of common airway chronic inflammatory disease which usually threatens human health. Typical symptoms of asthma are recurrent wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness and cough, usually happened at night or in early morning. However, there are still some patients who persist only clinical manifestations of chest tightness, namely, chest tightness variant asthma (CTVA). This subgroup of asthma usually lacks asthma-specific clinical features, therefore, often misdiagnosed and lack of effective treatment for a long time. The investigators' previous studies have found that CTVA has eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic subtypes. These patients with non-eosinophilic CTVA (NE-CTVA) are not sensitive to ICS/LABA, which guidelines recommend. At present, the specific treatment plan for NE-CTVA is urgently needed to elucidate. Azithromycin has immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects in addition to their antibacterial effects. Maintenance treatment with azithromycin has been proved to be effective in chronic neutrophilic airway diseases and severe asthma. However, there are no clinical studies to confirm the effectiveness of azithromycin in non-eosinophilic asthma, especially atypical asthma such as NE-CTVA. Now the investigators performed a national multi-center study to explore whether azithromycin improves asthma symptom control and improves quality of life in people with NE-CTVA. Finally, to find an optimal treatment for NE-CTVA.