Corticosteroid therapy in asthma: predictors of responsiveness.

Variable responses to corticosteroids are seen in a multitude of disease states including asthma, a disease in which these anti-inflammatory medications play a central role in both acute and chronic management. Clinical factors associated with steroid insensitivity, strategies for managing patients with steroid insensitivity, and underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for variable responses to corticosteroids are described.

Asthma adherence and the athlete.

Although much has been written on the topic of adherence (also known as compliance) in asthma, little is known about adherence in the asthmatic athlete. There are shared reasons for poor adherence to treatment among athletes of varying ages and levels of competition. The Shared Decision-Making model is considered to be the optimal approach to enhancing adherence among all patients with chronic disease but is particularly well applied to athletes with asthma.