The National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) came out a decade ago, yet as a nation, we still have the highest asthma death rate in Europe - four times that of Italy or the Netherlands. This is unsurprising, considering many patients still rely on their blue inhalers alone.However:• Blue inhalers don’t treat inflammation• Brown inhalers don’t relieve symptoms quicklyFirst and foremost, the best inhaler is the inhaler the patient will use and identifying what this is should actively involve the patient.
New BTS/SIGN/NICE Guideline on Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management 2024
This is a high-level summary of what the new BTS/NICE/SIGN Asthma: diagnosis monitoring and chronic asthma management guideline means for you as a primary healthcare professional and what steps you need to take to implement it effectively.
This article has been created as a summary of a range of material from PCRS tools and encompasses the basics of a good respiratory review.
Over the past 20-years, there has been an increased focus on the use of newer biologic medication in people with severe asthma that is not controlled with usual asthma medication. Although there are currently six biologics (January 2025) licensed for use in severe asthma, estimates suggest that of the 60,000 people potentially eligible for biologics in England, only 8,000-10,000 are on these treatments.
Now is the time to make MART moves for asthma. We have been using the separate blue (reliever) and brown (preventer) inhalers for far too long. The National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) came out a decade ago, yet as a nation, we still have the highest asthma death rate in Europe. This is unsurprising, considering many patients still rely on their blue inhalers alone. However,
Maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) is a treatment for asthma where a single combined inhaler is used for both maintenance and reliever purposes, instead of having separate preventer (brown) and reliever (blue) inhalers.
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