Adult asthma guidelines

摘要

The first British guidelines on asthma management were published in 1990 as a joint initiative between the British Thoracic Society (BTS), the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Kings' Fund Centre and the National Asthma Campaign,,12 The guidelines were updated in 1993 when guidelines on childhood asthma were also included 3 The last update was in 1995," The Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) first published asthma guidelines in 1996,5 then further primary-care guidelines in 19986 and guidelines on the management of acute severe asthma in 1999,7 The current guidelines published in final form in February 2003 are a collaboration between SIGN and the BTS,8 The new guidelines were needed because over the eight years since the previous BTS guidelines were published, there were new data and new drugs. The previous guidelines had been consensus-based, and with the evolution of guideline standards, it was clear that they needed to be evidence-based. The guidelines were developed using a methodology established by SIGN.