[Poorly controlled asthma: diagnosis and therapeutics in children and adolescents]

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in children. While most children with asthma respond to low doses of inhaled corticosteroids and /or leukotriene receptor antagonists, some of them remain symptomatic regardless of any therapeutic effort, showing a high morbidity and even mortality. While most of the patients control symptoms adequately, there is a large group with severe symptoms of the disease and difficult to control. The aim of this review is to discuss the clinical aspects, diagnosis and treatment of poorly controlled asthma in children and adolescents and its implications in daily clinical practice.