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Asthma

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About asthma and allergies

Asthma and allergies result in multiple long term consultations with an estimated 1 in 12 adults and 1 in 11 children in the UK. Sadly death rates remain stubbornly high will an average of three deaths a day.

Currently asthma costs the NHS about £1 billion p.a. and results in about 80,000 hospital admissions.

Allergy is affecting an increasing number of British adults and today they affect up to 44% of the population. Most allergies are not life threatening but in severe cases they cause anaphylaxis which may be fatal.

These resources include:

Explanations of the etiology of asthma and triggers of acute asthma attacks

The spectrum of asthma medications including inhaled corticosteroids, long-acting beta agonists (LABAs), leukotriene modifiers and inhalers combining a corticosteroid and a LABA

Reviews of recent asthma management guidelines and their application in primary care

Nurse helps child with inhalerTechniques and guidance to improve inhaler technique in children and adults

Articles also discuss common allergies such as allergic rhinitis and urticaria and the safe use of antihistamines

Scoring Top Marks for Asthma QOF Indicators

Asthma is a chronic disease that has, for a long time, been the domain of primary care nurses, and many have qualifications enabling them to run nurse-led asthma clinics. It is, therefore, essential to fully understand the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and to be able to maximise the points available to the practice, at the same time as providing a comprehensive service to patients. In this article, we review the QOF indicators for asthma, strategies for optimising record keeping and performing asthma reviews.

What do Patients Want from Asthma Therapy?

More than half of people with asthma in the UK have inadequate symptom control,
despite the range of effective therapies now available. Rather than blaming
patients when they fail to take their medications as prescribed, we need to
examine the way we conduct asthma consultations and ask whether we are failing
to meet the needs of individual patients. How can we gain greater understanding about what
people with asthma want from healthcare professionals and treatments, so we can achieve a
more patient-centred approach to care?

Thunderstorm Asthma

On 23 June 2005, the Met Office issued a warning that severe thunderstorms were likely
to hit the South East of England in the next 24 hours. On the evening of Friday 24 June,
primary care out-of-hours services and hospital accident and emergency departments
in Northwest London were inundated by patients attending with acute asthma. The
scale of these attendances – eight times more patients than usual in one hospital – meant that
departments had to call in additional staff and some ran out of emergency supplies of
bronchodilators, nebulisers and oral steroids for treating asthma. In this article, we will explain
the background and some of the theories related to this type of epidemic of acute asthma –
Thunderstorm Asthma.

The role of Beta2 agonists in managing asthma

Beta agonists are the only class of drugs that is recommended for the management of
asthma at every level of current guidelines, including those from the British Thoracic
Society (BTS). This means that they are used across the spectrum of severity of
asthma, from mild intermittent disease (step one) to severe asthma symptoms (step
five). In this article, we take you through the key things that you – and your patients – need to
know about these drugs.

The Challenges of Scoring QOF Points for Asthma and COPD

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is now well into its third year and continues
to expand boundaries of quality domains within chronic disease management. In this
article we review some of the challenges in QOF indicators for asthma and COPD and
suggest some tips to make the requirements easier to achieve in daily clinical practice.

The breathless patient: Is it asthma or COPD?

Breathlessness is a very common problem in the patients we see in general practice, and
there is a range of possible causes. In this article – the first in a series of three looking
at how to diagnose what’s wrong with a breathless patient – we explore how to
distinguish between two of the commonest respiratory causes of breathlessness,
asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Self-Management in Asthma

Good self-management is obviously a central part of achieving effective control of any
chronic condition. It is particularly important in asthma to help patients manage
exacerbations, which can sometimes develop with little warning and with serious
consequences. This article provides a step-by-step guide to developing effective selfmanagement
plans for patients with asthma by providing practical solutions to key questions
underpinning the process.

Piecing Together the Clues: Diagnosing Asthma in Adults and Older Children

Accurate diagnosis is the fundamental principle underlying effective management of
any condition. Without a correct diagnosis it is not possible to recommend
appropriate treatments, provide relevant educational information or to establish
effective collaborative partnerships between health professionals and patients. In
this article, we provide a ‘how to’ guide to diagnosing asthma. Like a detective, you have to
piece together the clues – including history, lung function and response to treatment – to solve
the diagnosis.

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