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Current Management of Acute Bronchitis in Ambulatory Care
David L. Hahn, MD
Arcand Park Clinic Madison, Wis
Arch Fam Med. 1996;5(8):439.
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings. |
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The article by Mainous et al1 and the 2 accompanying Editorials2,3 extend the much-needed debate about optimal management of acute bronchitis. Each contributor has a different emphasis, but all seem to agree that the final word is not in and that more information is needed.
With few exceptions,4 reversible airway obstruction has not been measured at presentation nor have possible predictive patient characteristics been well documented in most studies of the use of bronchodilators and/or antibiotics in acute bronchitis. There is little practical information to guide targeted prescribing of bronchodilators for those patients likely to respond.
It seems intuitively obvious that patients with acute bronchitis who also have symptomatic reversible airway obstruction are the group who will benefit from bronchodilators (or perhaps steroids). But is this intuition correct? A single study that employed spirometry supports this intuition,4 but another that did not found no association of
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
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