British asthma guidelines are 21 years old this month — and still going strong

摘要

IT SEEMS hard to believe that the asthma guidelines first produced by the British Thoracic Society (BTS) are 21 years old. The first guideline was published in September 1990 in the British Medical Journal, and consisted of two papers totalling just over six pages with four references, one of which was in the guideline for acute management referring back to the chronic management paper. How things have changed. In the update of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) and BTS guideline on the management of asthma (guideline 101 — see www.sign.ac.uk) there are more than 140 pages and over 800 references, many to evidence tables that encompass many further primary references (PJ, 14 May 2011, p556).The evidence has changed too — the updated guideline is firmly rooted in SIGN methodology so that the evidence has to be there to support new statements, although there are still some good practice points where evidence is not available.