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Diagnosis of Asthma
Asthma is a chronic lung condition that is characterized by difficulty in
breathing. People with asthma have extra sensitive or hyper-responsive airways.
During an asthma attack, the airways become irritated and react by narrowing and
constructing, causing increased resistance to airflow, and obstructing the flow
of the air passages to and from the lungs.
Diagnosis is the first step in keeping asthma under control.
Early warning signs of asthma include:
- fatigue
- coughing, even when the person does not have a cold
- wheezing
- difficulty breathing
- tightness in the chest
- runny nose
- itchy throat
Anyone regularly exhibiting any of the symptoms should see a doctor or allergist
as soon as possible. The earlier it is diagnosed the earlier the condition can
be controlled, and the more successful the treatment can be.
Initially, your doctor will ask about:
- Periods of coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, or chest tightness that
come on suddenly or occur often or seem to happen during certain times of year
or season.
- Colds that seem to "go to the chest" or take more than 10 days to get over.
- Medicines you may have used to help your breathing.
- Your family history of asthma and allergies.
- What things (triggers) seem to cause asthma symptoms or make them worse.
Your doctor will listen to your breathing with a stethoscope and look for signs
of asthma or allergies.
Also, your doctor will probably use a device called a spirometer to check your
airways. This test measures how much air and how fast you can blow air out of
your lungs after taking a deep breath. The results will be lower than normal if
your airways are inflamed and narrowed, as in asthma, or if the muscles around
your airways have tightened up. As part of the test, your doctor may give you
some medication that helps open up narrowed airways to see if it changes or
improves your test results. Spirometry is also used to check your asthma over
time to see how you are doing.
If your spirometry results are normal but you have asthma symptoms, your doctor
will probably want you to have other tests to see what else could be causing
your symptoms.
One test commonly used is called the bronchial challenge test. For this test, a
substance such as methacholine, which causes narrowing of the airways in asthma,
is inhaled. The effect is measured by spirometry.
Children under age 5 usually cannot use a spirometer successfully. If spirometry
cannot be used, the doctor may decide to try medication for a while to see if
the child's symptoms get better.
Besides spirometry, your doctor may also recommend that you have:
- Allergy testing to find out if and what allergens affect you.
- A test that uses a hand-held peak flow meter every day for 1-2 weeks to check
your breathing (a peak flow meter is a device that shows how well you are
breathing).
- A test to see how your airways react to exercise.
- Tests to see if you have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
- Test to see if you have sinus disease.
Other tests, such as a chest x-ray or an electrocardiogram, may be needed to
find out if a foreign object, or other lung diseases or heart disease could be
causing asthma symptoms.
A correct diagnosis is important because asthma is treated differently from
other diseases with similar symptoms.
Depending on the results of your physical exam, medical history, and lung
function tests, your doctor can determine how severe your asthma is. This is
important because your asthma severity will determine how your asthma should be
treated, and what the options are for treatment.
A general way to classify severity is to consider how often a person has
symptoms when that person is not taking any medicine or when their asthma is not
well controlled.
Based on symptoms, the four levels of asthma severity classification are:
- Mild Intermittent: occurs when your asthma is not well controlled, you have
asthma symptoms twice a week or less, and you are bothered by symptoms at night
twice a month or less.
- Mild Persistent Asthma: occurs when your asthma is not well controlled, you
have asthma symptoms more than twice a week, but no more than once in a single
day. You are bothered by symptoms at night more than twice a month. You may have
asthma attacks that affect your activity.
- Moderate Persistent Asthma: when your asthma is not well controlled, you have
asthma symptoms every day, and you are bothered by night=time symptoms more than
once a week. Asthma attacks may affect your activity.
- Severe Persistent Asthma: when your asthma is not well controlled, you have
symptoms throughout the day on most days, and you are bothered by night-time
symptoms often. In severe asthma, your physical activity is likely to be
limited.
Anyone with asthma can have a severe attack-even those who have intermittent or
mild persistent asthma.
Your doctor should provide most of the following information to you (and if they
don't then ask them to provide it):
- How to take your long-term daily medication correctly
- What things tend to make your asthma worse and ways to avoid them
- Early signs to watch for that mean your asthma is starting to get worse (like
a drop in your peak flow number or an increase in symptoms)
- How and when to use your peak flow meter
- What medication and how much to take to stop an asthma attack and how to use
it correctly
- When to call or see your doctor
- When you should get emergency treatment
This information will help you successfully manage asthma, so that you can lead
a normal life.
At a Glance … Asthma
Diagnosis-
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial
tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is characterized by
difficulty in breathing.
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If you have any of the warning signs for asthma, then it is
important to seek urgent medical advice.
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Common early warning signs of asthma include fatigue, coughing (especially
at night), wheezing, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, runny
nose, and itchy throat.
-
If you have some of these warning signs, then see a doctor as soon
as possible, so that they can perform a thorough examination and
diagnosis.
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Asthma Books
Here we are launching two asthma eBooks with basic information and tips about
Astma and Allergies.
- The Asthma Secrets
- The Asthma Basics
Come back and Check them out in a few weeks!
Asthma Resources
The asthma resources on this site are based on various reports and the experience of respected authorities.
Trends and Statistics
More people in western countries suffer from allergies, compared to people in
less affluent rural parts of the world, and allergy rates are also on the
increase.
Living with Asthma
It is important that you work with your doctor to make an action plan that you
are both happy with.
Asthma and Altitude
It is possible that people with asthma are more likely to be affected by
altitude sickness.
Asthma and Home - exterior
Various factors in the environment and outside of your home can be important
triggers or causes for the symptoms of asthma and asthma attacks.
Asthma and Home - interior
Various factors inside your home can be important triggers or causes for the
symptoms of asthma and asthma attacks.
Asthma Fact Sheet
Asthma is a highly ranked chronic health condition in adults in most western
countries, and it is the leading chronic illness of children.
What is Asthma?
Asthma (pronounced AZ-muh) is
defined in Essential Allergy, by Niels Mygind, Ronald Dahl, Soren Pedersen and
Kristian Thestrup-Pedersen 2nd edition as ...
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