|
All you want to know about Asthma
| |
More
carbon dioxide, more smog, more asthma!
|
Bronchial
asthma, generally called asthma, will cause repeated attacks of breathlessness
and wheezing. When the patient is
not in an attack, he feels normal. When an
asthma patient comes in contact with an allergic substance, it behaves, as an
antigen and reacts with the corresponding antibodies already present in his
body. The histamine and other substances liberated during the allergic reactions
cause the following changes in the bronchi :
a. Lungs muscles are
constricted to the extent of lessening the diameter of the bronchi.
b. Mucous membrane of
the bronchi gets swollen, which further restricts the lumen of the bronchi.
c. Secretions are
poured out from the swollen mucous lining into the constricted lumen of the
bronchi.
When the bronchi are constricted and they are full of secretions, the
patient has difficulty in breathing and his
breath has a wheezing sound in it, which is more on breathing out because
then the bronchi get narrower. Asthma
is a disease of the larger and medium-sized airways of the lungs and there is
obstruction to outflow of' air from the
lungs. Since enough air does not reach
the lungs for the exchange of gases, there is hurried breathing to
compensate it. Cough
is a frequent symptom in asthmatics. This occurs in order to throw out
the excessive secretions produced in the
lungs. This is particularly so in those who
have respiratory infection as well. Cough gets relieved by the same
measures as breathlessness. The
airways of the asthmatics are over-reactive to pollens, air pollution,
changes in temperature, physical exercise, etc, and they react strongly to these
factors. Persons
who are asthmatics find it extremely difficult to tolerate smoking or
air-pollution. Smoke or strong fumes, smell of fresh paint, white-washing,
house-dust, or fine dust from outside, or the opening of dusty almirahs or
trunks cause symptoms in some patients. Asthma
patients are liable to some complications such
as thoracic deformity in children, diminished growth, recurrent
infection or pneumonia, chronic bronchitis and hyper-inflation of the
lung tissues.
Types of Asthma:
Bronchial asthma can be categorized,
depending upon the main factors that cause the disease. This categorization
is helpful in the treatment of the individual case.
Extrinsic
Asthma: The
patients have an inherited liability
to develop asthma when exposed to allergic agents
like pollens, house dust, certain fungi, etc. These patients have, many a
time other manifestations of allergy as well, such as recurrent bouts of
sneezing (rhinitis) and eczema. These patients benefit from anti-allergy
treatments of different types. This type of asthma occurs in the early
period of life.
Intrinsic
Asthma: These
patients do not seem to have an allergic background, but develop the
disease because of some pre-existing disease of the lung such as past infections
or existing diseases like chronic bronchitis. These
patients do not respond well to anti-allergic measures.
This type of asthma occurs in the later period of life.
There
is another type of asthma which occurs in some people after taking
exercise. This is called exercise induced
asthma. This occurs more commonly
when physical exercise is done in cold weather.
Article
continues below....
What
is not Asthma?
Chronic Bronchitis: In
an elderly patient, the main difficulty arises in distinguishing asthma from
chronic bronchitis and emphysema; sometimes
asthma and chronic bronchitis may
coexist in a patient. A patient may begin with asthma because of an
allergy to pollens, etc., and if improperly or incorrectly treated he may develop
chronic bronchitis and later on emphysema, as well. On the other hand, a
patient may begin with chronic bronchitis, and
after many years, develop so-called
intrinsic asthma, without any apparent allergic background or known cause
and end up as a case of emphysema. Many a
time, it is difficult to establish which
is the primary disease, and which the complicated one.
Cardiac Asthma: An
important disease which simulates bronchial
asthma is cardiac asthma. In this condition the breathlessness is
primarily due to heart disease. This condition also occurs in paroxysms of
breathlessness, usually in sleep, but at times also due to
exertion. An attack, usually rises to a peak, is accompanied by difficulty in
breathing both during inhalation and exhalation,
and frequently by a horrifying sense of suffocation which causes the
patient to sit up or stand erect and even to
go to the window for air. The attacks
last from a few minutes to a few hours, averaging about an hour, and
leave the patient in an exhausted condition for hours or even days.
Cardiac
asthma is precipitated by acute failure of the
pumping action of the left ventricle of the heart. It is a common feature
with hypertensive heart disease and coronary artery disease.
During an attack, the presence of
cardiac asthma should be suspected if
the patient is more than forty years
old; if he has a previous history of hypertension or
heart disease; if he is sweating profusely; if he seeks for fresh air;
and if he has a sudden fear of death.
Hysterical Asthma: Some patients, in particular young girls, claim
the complaint of asthma but history and examination reveal that all they have is
sighing respiration; there is no wheeze and no difficulty in either breathing
in or breathing out. Such cases present no serious problem in differential
diagnosis.
Other Conditions: Diseases
which at some stage may simulate bronchial
asthma are malignant tumors of the chest, such as lymphosarcoma and Hodgkin's disease. Pressure of
enlarged glands in lung cancer may also
give rise to wheezing and breathlessness. The same may happen with the
dilatation and swelling of the wall of the
aorta in the chest. Aorta is the most
important blood vessel which carries the pure blood from the heart for
the rest of the body. Some of the
diseases caused by inhalation of different types
of dusts, vegetative and non-vegetative (organic and inorganic) can also
give rise to symptoms similar to bronchial
asthma. With inorganic dust, the history of the patient or his occupation
usually reveals a true diagnosis. In the case
of organic dust, it becomes difficult to make a diagnosis unless all
laboratory investigations are undertaken.
Commercial
and Non-Commercial leads in this website can help you in getting information you
are looking for...
| 
