The 1997 Asthma Management Guidelines and therapeutic issues relating to the treatment of asthma

In 1997, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute released the Second Expert Panel Report on the Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of A sthma as a follow-up to the first report issued in 1991, Implementation of the recommendations from this report could have a potentially huge impact o n care and treatment of asthma in the United States. Even though the Guidel ines are expansive, there are some areas related to the pharmacologic compo nent that warrant further discussion and clarification. These are: (1) safe ty and efficacy of available asthma medications, (2) clinical efficacy comp arisons of inhaled cortisosteroids, (3) comparative risks among inhaled cor ticosteroids, and (4) expectations of different delivery systems used with inhaled corticosteroids.