BCPS 2013: Asthma (a refresher of guidelines)

The BCPS Test contains questions the ACCP calls Ambulatory Care which has a few subtitles, one of which is asthma.  Charts and charts and memorization for the BCPS 2013:  Asthma.  Fun stuff right?  I do remember questions detailing patient has this many night symptoms and this many weekly, what category and what treatment.  So know these charts (embeded PDF files) Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways characterized by paroxysmal or persistent symptoms, such as shortness of breath, wheezing, cough, sputum production, and chest tightness, accompanied by variable airway hyper-responsiveness and degrees of airway obstruction.

Asthma diagnosis is confirmed by spirometry which includes an improvement in obstructed FEV1 by >/= 12 % from baseline and 200 mL at 5 minutes after using inhaled short-acting beta-2 agonist OR an increase > 10% of predicted FEV1 after inhalation of short-acting bronchodilator.

Acute or chronic?

Severity is determined by lung function and frequency and duration of symptoms (including at night).  Classification to determine treatment regimen.  Once asthma is well controlled, severity may be judged by determining minimal treatment needed to maintain acceptable control.

[embed]http://theblondepharmacist.com/asthmaclassification.pdf[/embed]

[embed]http://theblondepharmacist.com/asthmacontrol.pdf[/embed]

[embed]http://theblondepharmacist.com/5-11yearoldasthma.pdf[/embed]

[embed]http://theblondepharmacist.com/inhaledcorticosteroids.pdf[/embed]

There's also a great resource for guidelines that are relatively cheap if downloaded digitally.  Here's the asthma one!