FRIDAY, Dec. 4, 2020 (HealthDay News) — In an update to the Asthma Management Guidelines, published in the December issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, new guidance is presented for asthma management and treatment, focusing on tailored treatment interventions for specific age groups based on disease severity.
Michelle M. Cloutier, M.D., from UCONN Health in Farmington, Connecticut, and colleagues from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Coordinating Committee Expert Panel Working Group, supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, addressed six priority topic areas to update asthma management in the clinical setting.
The updates provide guidance on use of inhaled corticosteroids for recurrent wheezing or persistent asthma; use of long-acting antimuscarinic agents with inhaled corticosteroids for long-term management of asthma; and use of allergy shots containing small amounts of allergen for some individuals with allergic asthma. In addition, guidance is provided for the use of methods to reduce exposure to indoor asthma triggers; use of the fractional exhaled nitric oxide test to help manage asthma or confirm diagnosis in some patients; and use of bronchial thermoplasty to treat selected adults with persistent asthma.
“The last national guidance on asthma care was published 13 years ago, and since then we’ve made substantial progress in understanding how to treat asthma in children and adults,” Cloutier said in a statement. “In addition to asthma management varying by age group and disease severity, the preferences and values that individuals with asthma place on different therapies must be considered. The new guidelines reflect some of these new approaches.”
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines
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