Management of Life-Threatening Asthma Exacerbations

To receive AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™, you must receive a minimum score of 75% on the post-test.

1. You are a member of the healthcare team for a 27-year-old man presenting to the emergency department with life-threatening asthma exacerbation (LTAE). According to the review by Garner and colleagues, which of the following statements about strategies for evaluation and medical therapy of patients presenting with LTAE is correct?
   For appropriate triage of LTAE, static assessment of airway function is more helpful than dynamic assessment of therapeutic response
   Treatment strategies include effective bronchodilation with short-acting β agonists (SABAs), short-acting muscarinic antagonists (SAMAs), and magnesium sulfate (MgSO4); correction of hypoxemia; and intravenous (IV) corticosteroids to reduce inflammation
   Heliox treatment should be abandoned if there is no clinical improvement after 1 hour of use
   Biologic treatment should be used when SABAs are ineffective
2. According to the review by Garner and colleagues, which of the following statements about ventilation strategies for patients presenting with LTAE is correct?
   Correcting hypoxemia and hypercapnia, crucial for LTAE management, occasionally requires noninvasive mechanical ventilation to reduce work of breathing
   If conservative therapies fail to achieve clinical improvement within 2 to 3 hours, endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation should not be delayed
   All patients requiring mechanical ventilation should have rapid sequence intubation
   Patients needing ventilation should first receive bag-mask ventilation