Recalcitrant asthma: an allergist's approach.

Patients with asthma who have incomplete control of their symptoms or require regular systemic steroidal therapy are said to have recalcitrant asthma. A systematic approach may significantly improve quality of life. Factors that should be evaluated include living with an antigen, occupational exposure, use of beta-adrenoreceptor blockers, use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents, sensitivity to dietary chemicals, endocrinopathies, gastroesophageal reflux, sinusitis, bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, and noncompliance. Other diseases may mimic asthma or exacerbate nonspecific bronchial hyperreactivity. These include congestive heart failure, chronic infectious bronchitis resulting from cystic fibrosis, ciliary dysfunction syndrome, and immunodeficiency syndromes, upper airway obstruction, pertussis syndrome, psychogenic coughs, bronchiolitis obliterans, chronic eosinophilic pneumonia, and vasculitides. A systematic approach to the evaluation of coexisting factors and potential exacerbating diseases is presented.