ABSTRACT
In response to the increase in morbidity and mortality from asthma, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) published an expert panel's Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma (1). These were followed by the subsequent publication of the International Consensus Report on Diagnosis and Management of Asthma (ICR) in 1992 and culminated in a collaborative report from the NIH and World Health Organization entitled the Global initiative for Asthma (GINA) (2,3). These reports reviewed the current state of knowledge as well as established the goals of therapy for both chronic asthma and acute exacerbations of asthma. The first NAEPP guidelines established three goals for the treatment of acute asthma: ( 1) rapid reversal of airflow obstruction; (2) correction of significant hypoxemia; and (3) reduction of the rate of recurrent symptoms of severe asthma. The ICR and GINA reports added the two additional goals: (4) to restore lung function to normal as soon as possible and (5) to develop a written action plan in case of a further exacerbation.
