Sheffer A L, Taggart V S
Harvard University Medical School, Boston, MA.
Med Care. 1993 Mar;31(3 Suppl):MS20-8.
The significant worldwide increase in asthma-related severity and mortality has evoked increasing concern from the medical community. To enhance early recognition and appropriate therapeutic intervention of asthma, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's National Asthma Education Program convened an expert panel to develop guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma. The guidelines discussed in this article emphasize that airway inflammation is a central characteristic of asthma. Appropriate therapy must include four components: the use of objective measures of lung function to assess the severity of asthma and to monitor the course of therapy, comprehensive pharmacologic therapy that includes medications to reverse and prevent the underlying airway inflammation and to relieve the bronchoconstriction, environmental control measures to avoid or control factors that precipitate asthma exacerbations, and patient education to foster a partnership among the patient, the patient's family, and the clinician.
全球范围内与哮喘相关的严重程度和死亡率显著上升，引发了医学界越来越多的关注。为了加强对哮喘的早期识别和适当的治疗干预，美国国立心肺血液研究所的国家哮喘教育计划召集了一个专家小组来制定哮喘诊断和治疗指南。本文讨论的指南强调气道炎症是哮喘的核心特征。适当的治疗必须包括四个组成部分：使用肺功能客观指标来评估哮喘的严重程度并监测治疗过程，综合药物治疗，包括使用药物来逆转和预防潜在的气道炎症并缓解支气管收缩，环境控制措施以避免或控制引发哮喘发作的因素，以及患者教育，以促进患者、患者家属和临床医生之间的合作关系。
