Table 1.

Relevant clinical and pathologic information

Patient	Death Circumstance	Age at Onset of Asthma	Number of Prior Hospital Visits	Medications	Comorbid Conditions	Right Ventricular Hypertophy	Airways with Plug	Inflamed Airways	Loose Mucus in Airways	Basement Membrane Thickening	Open IBA	PA Muscular Hypertrophy	BA Remodeling
1	Morning wheezing treated with nebulizer, during last treatment developed cardiorespiratory arrest leading to severe anoxic brain injury on the first day, support withdrawn on the fourth day of hospitalization	Unknown	2	Unknown	None	No	3 in 73 (4%)	3 in 73 (4%)	5 in 73 (7%)	Present	Present	Mild	No
2*	No previous symptoms, found unresponsive 10 min after dinner in the bathroom, death within 10 h	4 mo	9	*Prednisone, fluticasone-salmeterol albuterol, montelukast	None	No	3 in 69 (4%)	0 in 69 (0%)	8 in 69 (11%)	Present	Present	Moderate-severe	Marked
3	5-d history of cold symptoms, could not awaken from sleep, cardiorespiratory arrest, death within 3 h	3 yr	8	Albuterol, fluticasone	Esophageal reflux	Mild	4 in 159 (2%)	9 in 159 (6%)	9 in 159 (6%)	Present	Present	Mild-moderate	Mild

Definition of abbreviations: BA = bronchial artery; IBA = intrapulmonary bronchopulmonary anastomosis; PA = pulmonary artery.

Clinical information and cardiac pathology data extracted from charts and autopsy reports are displayed. Quantification of airway-related microscopic pathology was done by reviewing all sampled lung tissues and counting all airways, including bronchi and bronchioli. Age-matched control was a 6-year-old girl with unexplained sudden death with a remote history of idiopathic cardiomyopathy.

^*Patient 2 did not take these prescribed medications prior 5 months, owing to insurance issues.