BACKGROUND Providing asthma education about controller medication use and appropriate management of asthma exacerbation are the keys to improving the disease outcome. Many asthma guidelines recommend that physicians provide written asthma action plan (WAAP) to all of their asthmatic patients. However, the benefit of WAAP is unclear. Thus, we have created a new WAAP which is simplified in Thai a...

BACKGROUND General practitioners (GPs) have a central place in the management of asthma, particularly in the context of acute exacerbations. AIM To evaluate the management of asthma exacerbations by GPs, and to investigate the ability of risk factors for near fatal asthma to predict the severity of asthma attacks in the community. DESIGN OF STUDY A 1-month multicentre cross-sectional survey...

Background: Asthma is a highly prevalent chronic respiratory disease in children. Moreover, the underlying causes of asthma exacerbation are important because they are effective in controlling and preventing asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the helicobacter pylori infection in controlled and uncontrolled asthmatic children compared to healthy children. Methods: This case- contro...

BACKGROUND Prospective data on the temporal relation between cough, asthma symptoms, and airway inflammation in childhood asthma is unavailable. AIMS AND METHODS Using several clinical (diary, quality of life), lung function (FEV(1), FEV(1) variability, airway hyperresponsiveness), cough (diary, cough receptor sensitivity (CRS)), and inflammatory markers (sputum interleukin 8, eosinophilic ca...

INTRODUCTION Central airway nitric oxide flux (J'(awNO)) and peripheral airway/alveolar nitric oxide concentration (C(ANO)) during asthma exacerbation has not been investigated after correction for axial NO back-diffusion. METHODS After measuring exhaled NO (fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (F(E)NO); ppb) at 50, 100, 150 and 200 ml/s, J'(awNO) (nl/s) and C(ANO) (ppb) were calculated using the...

BACKGROUND Combination therapy with an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and long-acting β2 agonist (LABA) is recommended for patients with asthma symptomatic on ICS alone. However, there is ongoing debate regarding the risk-benefit ratio of using LABA in asthma. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of the addition of a novel LABA, vilanterol (VI), to a once-daily ICS, fluticasone furoate (FF), on the...

Airway mucus hypersecretion and increased oxidative stress are clinical and pathophysiological features of asthma exacerbation. We studied effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) as a mucolytic and antioxidant agent in asthma exacerbation. In this randomized, single-blinded, placebo-controlled study 50 patients ( 17 male, 33 female, mean age 48.94+/-13.68) with asthma exacerbation were randomized to ...