Asthma Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Asthma, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, causes, medications.

Difficult-to-control asthma in adults.

Mealey FH, Kenyon NJ, Avdalovic MV, Louie S

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento 95817, USA.

Difficult-to-control asthma in adults is under-diagnosed and under-treated in the United States, particularly in those 40 years of age or older. Increasing attention has been focused on the subset of adult patients with poorly controlled asthma because they consume up to 85% of all health care dollars spent on asthma, while representing 20% of all asthma patients. In this article, we define difficult-to-control asthma and discuss the problem of misdiagnosis. We present an algorithm for confirming the diagnosis in these patients and highlight the importance of patient self-assessment.

Published 3 September 2007 in Am J Med, 120(9): 760-3.
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