DundeeChest 3.0

Posts Tagged ‘Probability’

Laura, stalwart member of PRN, and long time DundeeChest user, has asked about how to make the diagnosis of asthma.

There’s a guideline for that! And in it is has a nice diagram suggesting the signs and symptoms that suggest a diagnosis of asthma, and those which do not suggest a diagnosis of asthma.

Is asthma a likely diagnosis?

When you’ve weighed up the pro and con probabilities, you can determine whether asthma is of high, low, or intermediate probability. If it is highly probable, give a trial of treatment and assess response. If it is of low probability, seek alternative diagnosis. If it is of intermediate probability, spirometry might be helpful, or might not, and a PEF diary might be useful too. A trial of treatment, and early review is usually the most useful test.

Start pharmacological management appropriate to the severity of symptoms, but aim for control of asthma, regardless of severity.