Improved care of severe asthma is a major unmet medical need. Indeed, although most asthma can be relatively well controlled by the use of currently available medications, 5–10% of asthma remains refractory to current gold standards for its treatment. The European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society Task Force on severe asthma was charged “to revise the definition of severe asthma, discuss the possible phenotypes and provide guidance about the management of patients with severe asthma” with a target audience of specialists. It was further charged to develop a document that might serve “as the basis for development and implementation of locally-adopted guidelines.” The authors are to be congratulated for a comprehensive and scholarly work. They do indeed update the definition of severe asthma, they provide a scholarly review of research in the area, they emphasize how evolving phenotypes will eventually improve our treatment of the disease, and they make recommendations regarding treatment.
Severe asthma: pragmatic clinical lumping and time for investigational splitting.
PAPI, Alberto
2014
Abstract
Improved care of severe asthma is a major unmet medical need. Indeed, although most asthma can be relatively well controlled by the use of currently available medications, 5–10% of asthma remains refractory to current gold standards for its treatment. The European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society Task Force on severe asthma was charged “to revise the definition of severe asthma, discuss the possible phenotypes and provide guidance about the management of patients with severe asthma” with a target audience of specialists. It was further charged to develop a document that might serve “as the basis for development and implementation of locally-adopted guidelines.” The authors are to be congratulated for a comprehensive and scholarly work. They do indeed update the definition of severe asthma, they provide a scholarly review of research in the area, they emphasize how evolving phenotypes will eventually improve our treatment of the disease, and they make recommendations regarding treatment.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
