Part I: Clinical Definitions.- The clinical definitions of asthma.- The genetic bases of asthma.- Part II: Diagnosis and Patient Management.- The use of the pulmonary function laboratory in diagnosing asthma.- Diagnosis and management of allergic disease.- The pediatric asthmatic.- The Adult Asthmatic.- The patient with asthma in the emergency department.- The critically ill asthmatic: From ICU to discharge.- Part III: Special Clinical Problems.- Asthma and Pregnancy.- Exercise-induced asthma.- Viral disease, air pollutants, nanoparticles, and asthma.- Occupational asthma.- Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.- Rhinitis, sinusitis, and asthma.- Anesthesia for patients with asthma.- Asthmatics and adverse reactions to drugs, including recreational drug abuse.- Part IV: Living with Asthma.- The challenge of asthma in minority populations.- Asthma, health care and the law.