Volume 19 Issue 1 March 2010

• Summary of BTS Guidelines on community acquired pneumonia for the busy GP
  Patients present many different types of medical and psychosocial problems in primary care. We therefore face considerable challenges in each consultation – not least making decisions on whether the patient needs immediate or planned referral for hospital care – usually in time slots of only 10-12 minutes. No wonder then that GPs are not renowned for incorporating guidelines into clinical practice ... Hence the need for primary care summaries of evidence-based guidelines. On pg 21, Levy et al. present a summary of the recently updated BTS guidelines on the management of community acquired pneumonia (CAP). This paper, which has been endorsed by the RCGP and the PCRS-UK, provides key messages and recommendations for diagnosing and managing CAP, including the use of the CRB-65 score for assessing severity.
  
  
• Care for children with asthma provided by GPs or specialists – who does it better?
  Kuethe et al. compared the management of children with asthma in general practice and hospital outpatients, and concluded that the hospital-based group was better controlled (pg 62). However, in his thought-provoking editorial on pg 1, Sachs elucidates the flaws in their argument and discusses the importance of prognostic studies and self perception of illness by children or their parents.
  
  
• Asthma prescriptions for children under 10
  On pg 28, Schokker et al. shed light on asthma prescriptions in the Netherlands for children under 10, and in his commentary on pg 35, Small analyses the paper in depth.
  
  

• Pedersen’s review of the importance of assessing levels of asthma control rather than disease severity (pg 3)
  
  
• Pinnock et al.’s discussion paper on asthma consultations in primary care (pg 75)
  
  
• Economic analyses by Gani et al. comparing tiotropium and ipratropium or salmeterol in COPD patients (pg 68).