L12 Asthma Flashcards
Asthma is a very old disease.
From the Greek word Άσθμα a’sthma meaning gasp
It was first reported about
3500 years ago.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the botanical ma huang has been used for more than 3000 years for the short‐ term treatment of respiratory symptoms.
Some traditional treatments for Asthma
Roman: blood from chicken or owls and mix with red wine
-worked for some patients
What is asthma?
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, characterized by airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm.
Symptoms:
wheezing, cough, sputum production, chest tightness, and shortness of breath associated with airway hyperresponsiveness.
Variable episodic airflow obstruction: reversible either spontaneously or with treatment.
Facts about asthma
Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. (300mil globally effected)
In NZ: 1/6 of adults and 1⁄4 of children have asthma symptoms. More than 600,000 Kiwis
Over 500,000 New Zealanders take asthma medication
$800Million annual economic burden of asthma (direct and indirect cost)
The most common cause of admission to hospital for children
Hospitalization rates: doubled in the past 30 years.
YLD: The highest‐ranking disease in terms of Years Lost to Disability in males, 3rd for females
Prevalance of asthma differing b/w countries
NZ is has one of the top prevalance rates in the world (30%)
Countries with higher prevalance rates (UK, AUS, ireland, Canada) are all developed countries
-Indonesia, Romania, Georgia are developed countries
Cost burden for Asthma
Annual Direct cost: $125.2mil per year
Annual Indirect cost: $699mil
Age distribution for Asthma
under 17yrs: male have higher rates
older than 18yrs: females have higher
1998–>2008: trend increasing rates of asthma
Overall change in asthma rates
Percentage distribution of current asthma by sex, age, ethnic origin and Geographic region, 2009
Current Asthma: 24,566,689
Sex: Female 58%. Male 42%
Age:
Effectivity of treatment for asthma
Asthma can be effectively treated and most patients can achieve good control of their disease
Features of Asthma
Episodic (normally) -dont have symtpoms between different episodes. sometimes seasonally acute.
Chronic- persisitent (pot daily) airflow obstruction
Life-threatening- if not treated possible. keep bronchodilator handy.
Symptoms of asthma
Wheezing Dyspnea Chest tightness Coughing Sputum production Airflow obstruction Become worse during night time
Diagnosis of Asthma
- Physical Examination: Wheezing—high‐ pitched whistling sounds, (But, wheezing is not specific for asthma) (episodic may not see symptoms of wheezing b/w attacks) (loudness of wheezing doesnt reflect severity of obstruction)
- Patient History (specific..)
- Lung function test (gold standard): evidence of variable airflow obstruction.
- Symptoms occur or worsen due to certain acitivities (specific…)
- Other things
Family history of asthma
History of atopic disease: allergic rhinitis, urticaria or eczema
Patient’s Asthma history
2. History of any of the following: • Cough, Recurrent wheeze • Recurrent dyspnea, • Recurrent chest tightness • Reversible airflow limitation and diurnal variation -very important
Activities that may worsen asthma symptoms
Exercise
Viral infection
Animals with fur or feathers House‐dust mites
-common allergin for NZ asthma
Moulds,
Smoke ,
Pollen Changes in weather,
-pine tree pollen triggering asthma symptoms
Strong emotional expression (laughing or crying hard, breathing heavily),
Airborne chemicals or dusts
Atypical Presentation of Asthma
Dyspnea without wheezing (wheezing doesnt occur in all asthma patients)
Chronic cough
Increased shortness of breath at nighttime
Allergic rhinitis with wheezing
Laboratory studies re Asthma
Lung function tests.
Skin allergy test and serologic studies
Radiographic Studies
Lung function tests
- Peak expiratory flow (PEF) (peak flow metre)
- help to montiro progress of treatment
- easy to perform
- cheap
- difficult to use as a ghost indicator for diagnosis as variation is too large and different from patient-patient - Spirometry: FEV1 is a better measure for asthma.
- diagnoser for asthma
- FEV1 used to distinguish b/w COPD and asthma
- not very suitable to patients younger than 6yrs