NICE recommends guideline to improve asthma diagnosis

Spirometry should be used as the first-line investigation for diagnosing asthma in children over 5 and adults, according to new guidance. The draft guideline – the first on asthma by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – reinforces recommendations made in the 2014 BTS/SIGN asthma guideline, which also supports spirometry as the preferred initial test to assess the presence and severity of airflow obstruction. Currently, there is no gold standard test available to diagnose asthma and it is diagnosed principally on the basis of a thorough history taken by an experienced clinician. In the UK, 4.1 million