The drug of choice for the treatment of occasional acute symptoms of asthma is an inhaled beta adrenergic agonist, such as salbutamol. The most frequent adverse reactions to salbutamol include nervousness, headache, tremor, tiredness and light-headedness [1]. The following report describes a patient with asthma from childhood, who developed creatine phosphokinase elevation associated with sever...

BACKGROUND A recent meta-analysis showed that intravenous and nebulised magnesium sulphate have similar levels of evidence to support their use in the treatment of acute asthma in adults. This consisted of weak evidence of effect on respiratory function and hospital admissions, with wide confidence intervals ranging from no effect to significant positive effects. Current BTS/SIGN guidelines sug...

The aim of this prospective study of a population of children (age, 2-15 years) hospitalized for severe asthma was to test them for acute infection due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae and acute infection due to Chlamydia pneumoniae. Of 119 patients with previously diagnosed asthma, acute M. pneumoniae infection was found in 24 (20%) and C. pneumoniae infection was found in 4 (3.4%) of the patients dur...

Increased asthma severity is not only associated with enhanced recurrent hospitalisation and mortality but also with higher social costs. Most cases of asthma are atopic in nature, with the trigger for acute asthma attacks and chronic worsening of inflammation being allergens inducing an immune response through immunoglobulins of IgE class. Currently antiinflammatory treatments are effective fo...

A double-blind crossover study of the effects of real and placebo acupuncture on bronchial reactivity to histamine was carried out on 16 patients with moderately severe asthma. Treatment with real or placebo acupuncture failed to modulate the bronchial hyperreactivity to histamine. These results suggest that a single treatment with acupuncture is unlikely to provide improvement in the managemen...

INTRODUCTION — The best strategy for management of acute exacerbations of asthma is early recognition and intervention, before attacks become severe and potentially life-threatening. Detailed investigations into the circumstances surrounding fatal asthma have frequently revealed failures on the part of both patients and clinicians to recognize the severity of the disease and to intensify treatm...