Article: Asthma Severity is Variable and Unpredictable; New Analysis Reveals That Patients Frequently Move Between Severity Categories; 'Point-in-Time' Assessments May Not Reflect True Asthma Severity and May Contribute to Underestimation of Disease Severity.

SAN DIEGO -- When asthma patients are classified as having mild, moderate or severe persistent asthma, they should not assume that the severity of their asthma will remain stable over time.

Instead, asthma severity can fluctuate markedly over time, according to a study presented today at CHEST 2002, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians. Patients not taking controller medications can frequently move between severity categories -- a patient classified with a particular severity of asthma one week may exhibit symptoms or lung function findings consistent with another severity classification the next. As a result, discrete measurements of ...

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