Related articles: Asthma
Definition
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the airways of the lungs (bronchi) - making them inflamed and restricted - and hindering breathing. Despite the absence of a universal cure, asthma symptoms can be controlled. The onset of bronchial asthma is favored by contact with various kinds of stimuli, such as allergens, physical efforts, emotions and infections.Most common symptoms and signs *
- Respiratory acidosis
- anguish
- asphyxiation
- Pulmonary atelectasis
- Catarrh
- Cyanosis
- Dyspnoea
- Chest pain
- Pain in the sternum
- Eosinophilia
- Shortness of breath
- Insomnia
- Hypercapnia
- Hypertrophy of the accessory muscles of respiration
- Hyperventilation
- Restlessness
- orthopnea
- pneumomediastinum
- pneumothorax
- Paradoxical pulse
- Wheezing breath
- Reduction of respiratory noise
- Ronchi
- Sense of suffocation
- Barrel chest
- Cough
Further indications
The most common asthma symptoms (wheezing, wheezing, chest tightness, dry or phlegm cough) can occur together or individually. The diagnostic suspicion arises when these symptoms are triggered by particular stimuli, such as those previously exposed.
The symptoms of asthma are similar to those typical of other lung diseases. Asthma, for example, can be confused with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease); the difference is that while the first asthma crises usually occur in the infantile period, COPD is typical of senility. Moreover, very important, in COPD, as in emphysema, the character of reversibility of the typical bronchial obstruction of asthma is missing.
