Editorial
Severity of chronic asthma
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
How is the severity of chronic asthma best assessed and what
are the mechanisms that determine its severity? These two questions are
difficult to answer because, until we understand what asthma is, it is
not possible to describe its severity in a given individual. In the
shorter Oxford English Dictionary severity in relation to disease is
defined as "violence or acuteness of illness" or "grievousness of
affliction". The former definition is useful for exacerbations or
attacks. Clinicians have had little difficulty in agreeing on defining
the severity of attacks.1 2 The latter definition seems
relevant to the severity of the chronic disease which is the subject of
these comments. Until recently the severity of asthma was rarely
assessed, but with the increasing use of guidelines and drug trials the
concept of severity has emerged. The GINA guidelines1
classify the disease as intermittent and persistent with severe,
moderate, and mild degrees of
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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Lim, K. G.
(2002). Management of Persistent Symptoms in Patients With Asthma. Mayo Clin Proc.
77: 1333-1339
[Abstract] -
Balfour-Lynn, I.
(1999). Difficult asthma: beyond the guidelines. Arch. Dis. Child.
80: 201-206
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