Asthma in Older Children: Special Considerations
Key Points • Failure of symptoms to respond to β-agonists and oral steroids should prompt consideration that the symptoms are not caused by asthma but by another process. • Cough…
Promoting Adherence and Effective Self-Management in Patients with Asthma
Key Points • Patients often take less than half of their prescribed controller medication, and surprisingly many stop taking their controller medication altogether after an initial filling at their pharmacy….
Special Considerations for Infants and Young Children
Key Points • The care of infants and small children with suspected asthma deserves special consideration because of the potential to modulate the disease process early on and alleviate the…
Exercise-Induced Asthma: Strategies to Improve Performance
Key Points • Prevalence of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (with or without baseline asthma) may be as high as 20% of the population of casual exercisers, and much higher in specific risk…
Refractory Childhood Asthma: Assessment and Management
Key Points • Problematic, severe asthma comprises wrong diagnosis (‘not asthma at all’), asthma with co-morbidities (‘asthma plus’), difficult asthma and true severe, therapy-resistant asthma. These patients should undergo a…
Inner City Asthma: Strategies to Reduce Mortality and Morbidity
Key Points • Racial and ethnic minorities and children with low socioeconomic status living in urban communities have a disproportionate burden of asthma morbidity, mortality and healthcare use. • Successful…
Guidelines for Treatment of Asthma: A Global Concern
Key Points • Guideline development is increasingly driven by published data (i.e. evidence based). • Guidelines increasingly focus on asthma control rather than severity. • Asthma control defines current ‘impairment’…
School-Centered Asthma Programs
Key Points • High rates of school absenteeism affect a child’s ability to learn. Every school day in the USA 36,000 children and youth miss school because of asthma. •…
Functional Assessment of Asthma
Key Points • Asthma pathology has defining physiologic correlates, including airflow limitation, heightened airway responsiveness to stimuli and improved airflow in response to bronchodilators. • Spirometry is the most common…
Immunology of the Asthmatic Response
Key Points • Asthma is a complex syndrome that includes many disease phenotypes and endotypes. • Allergic asthma and Type 2 asthma represent the most common phenotype with lung eosinophilia….
