Synopsis
Asthma is a common condition with increasing prevalence. This new edition of the highly regarded ABC of Asthma has been thoroughly revised with reference to the latest British Thoracic Society guidelines on the management of asthma in children and adults. It covers the advances in practice and methods, with a new emphasis on delivery systems, self-dose assessment and delivery of care with different pharmacological approaches.
The ABC of Asthma is a concise, up-to-date overview of all aspects of asthma and includes two new chapters focussing on GP practice issues including clinical management and organisation of asthma care. It is ideal for GPs, junior doctors and medical students, nurses, and anyone dealing with the treatment of asthma in children and adults.
Mary Beth Hogan
This is the third edition of a text dedicated to providing an overview of asthma management to the primary care physician in the United Kingdom. An update in this manual was warranted because the field of asthma management has undergone considerable change since the publication of the 1984 edition. This book meets its primary objective of providing the primary care physician with an overview of the recent changes in asthma management. However, it falls short of being usable as a prescribing or hands-on management reference book. The book is directed at primary care physicians. The manual makes liberal use of photographs, tables, and algorithms. This makes the book easy to read. The algorithms are intended to be summaries of the previously published International Consensus Report on the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma. However, the algorithms are incomplete and confusing, thereby limiting their potential usefulness to the primary care physician. The addition of references for those practitioners seeking more detailed information would be helpful. The main value of this edition lies in its presentation of a consistent and clear message that today's management of asthma requires early and aggressive measures to prevent significant morbidity and mortality. This book's usefulness would be increased with more detailed instructions on allergen avoidance measures and prescribing information. There are a few significant deviations from the U.S. National Asthma Education Program recommendations. These include an overemphasis on the use of anticholinergic medications, and smaller doses of systemic glucocorticosteroids are advocated by the authors. In addition, the use of epinephrine (which isreadily available in most primary care practices) is never mentioned as a form of management in the severe status asthmaticus section of the book. These deviations limit the applicability of this manual for the U.S. primary care physician. This book provides a good overview of the issues involved in the management of asthma. However, it falls short of providing the information that would most enable primary care physicians to easily implement changes in the management of their patients with asthma.