Guidelines seeking to influence and regulate clinical activity are currently gaining a new cultural ascendancy on both sides of the Atlantic. Statutory agencies may be charged with developing clinical guidelines, and civil courts, in deciding actions in negligence, could be influenced by standards of care expressed in guideline statements. Clinical guidelines are not accorded unchallengeable st...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND #ENTITYSTARTX00026; OBJECTIVE Viral respiratory infections (VRI) have been commonly associated with exacerbation of wheezing in asthmatic children. Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) causes many respiratory syndromes that clinically mimic VRI. Due to the nature of the organism, cultures are of no practical value and the diagnosis is usually made by serology. Only a few studies h...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the quality of available evidence to establish guidelines for the use of noninvasive ventilation for the management of status asthmaticus in children unresponsive to standard treatment. METHODS Search, selection and analysis of all original articles on asthma and noninvasive ventilation in children, published until September 1, 2014 in all languages in the electronic dat...

OBJECTIVE To test the ability of an assessment-driven algorithm for treatment of pediatric status asthmaticus to reduce length and cost of hospitalization. DESIGN Nonrandomized, prospective, controlled trial. SETTING Tertiary care children's hospital. PATIENTS Children aged 1 to 18 years hospitalized for status asthmaticus; 104 were treated using the asthma care algorithm (intervention) a...