Diagnosis and Assessment of the Asthmas.

Abstract

Optimizing asthma diagnosis is an essential part of global strategies to reduce the excessive illness burden from asthma. New understanding about how to address the complexity and heterogeneity of the different forms of asthma means that asthma diagnosis now requires a compound diagnostic approach and label. Eliciting the typical symptoms and abnormal physiology of variable airflow limitation permits the recognition of asthma, and the identification of further features, such as eosinophilic or type 2 inflammation, allows a compound diagnostic label of eosinophilic asthma. This conveys key information about future exacerbation risk and likely treatment responsiveness. Treatable traits are a useful way to implement this new approach to diagnosis. Targeted assessment is used to inform a specific treatment plan in a pragmatic and iterative process.