Fast Facts: Asthma

Fast Facts: Asthma delivers a clear practical message improved asthma control can be achieved through efficient commonsense delivery of asthma care, alongside strategies that improve patient self-management and medication use. This fully updated fourth edition examines the essentials of good asthma care, distilled from the latest international guidelines and best available evidence, including:

• Accurate asthma diagnosis
• Identification and control of factors that increase the risk of exacerbations
• Effective delivery of inhaled medication
• The recommended stepwise approach to asthma treatment
• Questions to ask before diagnosing refractory asthma
• Inflammation-guided therapy
• Recognition and treatment of acute asthma attacks
• Strategies to improve adherence to asthma treatment

The easy-reference format of this concise, well-illustrated handbook is ideal for general practitioners, asthma nurses, medical students and asthma educators seeking a practical overview of good asthma care that will help with individualized management plans and patient education, and improve outcomes and quality of life for the very many people living with asthma.

Contents:

• Pathophysiology
• Epidemiology and natural history
• Diagnosis and classification
• Management
• Refractory asthma
• Acute asthma attacks
• Preventing asthma attacks
• Exercise-induced asthma
• Developments
• Useful resources

Stephen T Holgate MD DSc FRCP FMedSci MRC, Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology, School of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK

Jo Douglass MB BS MD FRACP, Head, Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Royal Melbourne Hospital; Honorary Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne