Asthma management guidelines
Executive Summary
Draft report of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's National Asthma Education Program Coordinating Committee recommends that asthma patients receive cromolyn or a topical steroid, as well as a bronchodilator, during initial treatment. Committee member Albert Sheffer, MD, Harvard Medical School, presented an overview of the draft report at a June 8 meeting of the committee. Noting that there are "better topical steroids on the continent" than in the U.S., Sheffer decried the "steroid phobia" in the U.S. The final report on asthma management is to be completed by Nov. 2.