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Evidently...

Department of Primary Care, University of Oxford
Oxford, UK

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Asthma is the oldest medical word in common use: it first appears in the writings of Hippocrates around 450 BCE and derives from a verb used by Homer. Two and a half millennia later, we continue to argue about its definition and treatment. The drugs we prescribe most are the ß adrenergic agonists, both short acting and long acting, although they are associated with an increase in the risk of asthma-related death. We urge many patients to take inhaled corticosteroids, but many forget; for them a good idea might be to use metered dose inhalers with an audiovisual reminder device, according to a trial from New Zealand ( J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007;119:811–6[CrossRef][Medline] ). Recently, fixed dose combinations of long acting ß stimulants and steroids have become popular with both doctors and patients, though we lack good data on their long term . . . [Full text of this article]