A GROWING PROBLEM
What is Asthma?
• Asthma is a chronic, inflammatory lung disease in which the airways
become blocked or narrowed. These effects are usually temporary,
but they cause shortness of breath, breathing trouble, and other
symptoms. If an asthma episode is severe, a person may need
emergency treatment to restore normal breathing.
• For adults, asthma is the fourth leading cause of work loss, resulting
in nine million lost workdays each year.
• Asthma also accounts for about 1.8 million emergency room visits
and 10 million doctor office visits each year.
• It is in the bronchi and bronchioles that asthma has its main effects.
• Here is how the process occurs. When the airways come into
contact with an asthma trigger, the tissue inside the bronchi and
bronchioles becomes inflamed. At the same time, the muscles on
the outside of the airways tighten up (constriction), causing them to
narrow. A thick fluid (mucus) enters the airways, which become
swollen. The breathing passages are narrowed still more, and
breathing is hampered.
Lymphocyte
Lymphocytes produce IGE
and various interleukins.
IGE may be bound to mast
cells or basophils.
If they are produced in the
presence of allergens, they
May bind to the cells and to
the allergen. They release
histamine which causes
inflammation of tissue and
allergy problems. The cells
Also release cytokines,
Interleukins and prosta-
glandins which attract
eosinophils and other cells.
Eosinophil
Who Gets Asthma?
• The process just described can be normal, up to a point.
Everyone's airways constrict somewhat in response to
irritating substances like dust and mold. But in a person
with asthma, the airways are hyperreactive. This means
that their airways overreact to things that would just be
minor irritants in people without asthma.
• Allergies: For reasons that are not fully known, some people seem
to inherit a tendency to develop allergies. This is not to say that a
parent can pass on a specific type of allergy to a child. In other
words, it doesn't mean that if your mother is allergic to bananas, you
will be too. But you may develop allergies to something else, like
pollen or mold.
• People today live in cleaner, more sanitary conditions than they did before
the industrial revolution, relatively free of disease-causing viruses and
bacteria. This clean living affects our immune system. The immune system's
defensive white blood cells, called T cells, have two basic "settings”. Th1
cells fight infectious viruses and bacteria. Th2 cells fight parasites but are
also involved in allergic reactions.
• We are exposed to fewer viruses and bacteria than people were 100 years
ago, so perhaps our immune systems have not learned to make Th1 cells
as well. That means we have a greater proportion of Th2 cells in our
bodies, which might lead to more allergies and asthma.
• The Total Lung Capacity (TLC) is the total amount of air the lungs can
contain:
TLC = RV + ERV + Vt + IRV
• The Vital Capacity (VC) is the total amount of air the person can breathe in
and out:
VC = ERV + Vt + IRV
• Functional Residual Capacity (FRC) is the total amount of air left in the
lungs at the end of a normal exhalation: FRC = RV + ERV