The diagnostic process for severe asthma is divided into the following 3 stages. An essential step in the definition of severe asthma is to exclude those cases that present as “refractory” asthma, but for which a reasonable diagnosis and/or treatment of the confounding factors can significantly improve the condition (see “Assessment “section). Therefore, the guidelines recommend that patients presenting with “refractory asthma” should first have their asthma diagnosis confirmed by an asthma specialist and be evaluated and managed for at least 3 months. After the diagnosis of asthma is confirmed and comorbidities are treated, severe asthma is defined as “requiring high-dose inhaled glucocorticosteroids plus a controller medication (and/or systemic hormones) to prevent it from becoming ‘uncontrolled’ asthma and/or systemic hormones to prevent it from becoming ‘uncontrolled’ asthma, or from presenting as ‘uncontrolled’ asthma despite such treatment”. This definition includes cases in which the above treatment has been adequately tried but discontinued due to non-response. In patients over 6 years of age, the “gold standard or international guideline recommended treatment” is high-dose inhaled hormones (ICS) combined with long-acting 2 agonists (LABA), leukotriene modifiers, theophylline, and/or long-term systemic hormones as the basic treatment. Stage 3: Determining whether severe asthma is controlled The criteria for determining uncontrolled asthma are shown in Table 1, with one of the four criteria being met for diagnosis. Severe asthma was determined by meeting any 1 of the 4 criteria under current high-dose drug therapy (Table 1). Patients who do not meet the criteria for uncontrolled asthma and whose asthma worsens on hormone taper also meet the definition of severe asthma. Meeting this definition predicts a high risk of future disease, risk from the disease itself (exacerbations and loss of lung function), and risk of adverse drug reactions.