Five representative aims were to: 1) characterize acute asthma management in urban emergency departments (EDs) and then compare current practice with that recommended in the 1997 national guidelines; 2) examine gender differences in acute asthma; 3) identify reasons why minority patients with asthma go to (and possibly prefer) the ED for their asthma care; 4) characterize important clinical subgroups, such as acute asthma among pregnant women and patients with sudden-onset severe acute asthma; and 5) examine risk factors for asthma hospitalization and for relapse after ED discharge.