Asthma

• Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory disease of

the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, airflow
obstruction, and bronchospasm .

• Symptoms include wheezing, cough, chest tightness,

and shortness of breath.
• Medicines such as inhaled short-acting beta-2 agonists may be
used to treat acute attacks.
• Attacks can also be prevented by avoiding triggering factors such
as allergensor rapid temperature changes and through drug treatment
such as inhaled corticosteroids.
• Leukotriene antagonists are less effective than corticosteroids, but have
fewer side effects.
• The monoclonal antibody omalizumab is sometimes effective.
• It affects 7% of the population of the United States,6.5% of British
people and a total of 300 million worldwide.
• Asthma causes 4,000 deaths a year in the United States.
• Prognosis is good with treatment.
• Although asthma is a chronic obstructive condition, it is not
considered as a part of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as this
term refers specifically to combinations of bronchiectasis, chronic
bronchitis, and emphysema.
• Unlike these diseases, the airway obstruction in asthma is usually
reversible; however, if left untreated, asthma can result in chronic
inflammation of the lungs and irreversible obstruction.
• In contrast to emphysema, asthma affects the bronchi, not
the alveoli.
• Public attention in the developed world has increased recently
because of its rapidly increasing prevalence, affecting up to one
quarter of urban children
• Asthma is clinically classified according to the frequency of
symptoms, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV ), and peak
1

expiratory flow rate.

• Asthma may also be classified as atopic (extrinsic) or non-atopic
(intrinsic), based on whether symptoms are precipitated by allergens
(atopic) or not (non-atopic).
• Because of the spectrum of severity among asthma patients, some
people with asthma only rarely experience symptoms, usually in
response to triggers, where as other more severe cases may have
marked airflow obstruction at all times. citation needed
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• Asthma exists in two states: the steady-state of chronic asthma,
and the acute state of an acute asthma exacerbation. citation needed The
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symptoms are different depending on what state the patient is in.

• Common symptoms of asthma in a steady-state include: nighttime
coughing, shortness of breath with exertion but no dyspnea at rest, a
chronic 'throat-clearing' type cough, and complaints of a tight feeling
in the chest.
• Severity often correlates to an increase in symptoms.
• Symptoms can worsen gradually and rather insidiously, up to the
point of an acute exacerbation of asthma.
• It is a common misconception that all people with asthma wheeze
—some never wheeze, and their disease may be confused with
another chronic obstructive pulmonary disease such
as emphysema or chronic bronchitis.