Researchers have developed and preliminarily tested a composite score that simultaneously assesses the severity of asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) in patients with both conditions. They described the D’Amato-De Corso, or DAMADECO, score in a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.

“Importantly, all the parameters included in the score are already used to assess asthma and CRSwNP in routine clinical practice,” Eugenio De Corso, MD, PhD, and colleagues wrote.

Although asthma and CRSwNP frequently coexist, clinical practice has lacked an integrated assessment tool that could evaluate both conditions at the same time. Recognizing the need, an expert panel of three pulmonologists, one allergist/clinical immunologist, and four ear, nose, and throat specialists developed the DAMADECO score.

The tool consists of eight parameters: four specific to asthma and four specific to CRSwNP. The asthma parameters include the number of exacerbations the previous year, the number of oral corticosteroid cycles the previous year, the most recent pre-bronchodilator predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second assessment, and the most recent Asthma Control Test assessment. CRSwNP parameters include the most recent visual analogue scale olfactory assessment, the most recent nasal polyp score assessment, the most recent Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-22 assessment, and the number of oral corticosteroid cycles the previous year.

The resulting DAMADECO score ranges from −8 to +8, with the lowest value indicating poor control and the highest value signaling optimal control.

Using DAMADECO in Clinical Settings

Researchers tested the DAMADECO scoring tool in a retrospective pilot study of 21 patients with comorbid asthma and CRSwNP. According to the findings, mean partial scores were −1.57 for asthma and −1.67 for CRSwNP. The mean total composite score was −3.24.

The score identified uncontrolled domains in both asthma and CRSwNP in 13 patients. Just one patient had only uncontrolled asthma domains, while six patients had only uncontrolled CRSwNP domains, the study found.

“The experts believe that tools like this may have the potential to improve clinical practice by providing a comprehensive, streamlined approach to optimize the multidisciplinary management of comorbid patients, ultimately improving their clinical outcomes and well-being,” the researchers wrote. “Nevertheless, a prospective, multicenter study with a larger patient population should be conducted to fully validate this tool by confirming its validity and reliability and establish cutoff points for clinical decision-making.”