Drug Therapy for Asthma

Excerpt

To the editor: The paper "Drug Therapy in the Management of Asthma" by VanArsdel and Paul (Ann Intern Med 87:68-74, 1977) is an interesting review. In the discussion, however, I found two controversial comments that warrant clarification.

The authors suggest that Venturi masks may be needed for those patients with asthma who require oxygen and are mouth-breathers. Both theoretically and practically, there are inherent dangers with these masks for patients in respiratory distress who do not require controlled oxygen therapy (1). Although a fixed inspired oxygen concentration may be adequate at one moment under steady-state conditions, it may become seriously