Management of bronchial asthma.
The goals of the therapy of bronchial asthma are: (1) freedom from symptoms (within days); (2) normal spirometry (within weeks); (3) reduced or absent hyperreactivity and eosinophilia (within months), and (4) no airway inflammation = normal mucociliary clearance rate ('cured asthma'). Nobody knows how to cure asthma, but we know that we can reach at least stages 1 and 2 with consequent pharmacotherapy, and often also stages 3 and 4 by avoiding asthma-triggering agents and using long-term topical glucocorticoid therapy by inhalation.
Matthys
H
H
Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital, Freiburg, FRG.
D000208:Acute Disease; D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control; D004630:Emergencies; D006801:Humans