Yes, asthma can be fatal. Thousands of people die each year in the United States from uncontrolled asthma. Asthma is a highly treatable disease. Death from asthma is especially tragic because each one of those...
The actual treatment you receive in the emergency department of the hospital depends on the individual characteristics of your asthma, other health conditions you may have, as well as the severity of your symptoms when...
Gemma’s comment: Emergencies can be scary. During a vacation at a popular seaside resort in the northeast, I was caught on the beach as a squall came up, blowing sand in my face and mouth....
Immunoglobulins are protein molecules that circulate in the bloodstream. They are part of the body’s immune response to a stimulus perceived as foreign, such as bacteria, parasites, or allergens. There are five classes of immunoglobulins,...
How can I find out whether or not I have allergies? If I do have allergies in addition to my asthma, what types of treatment are available? A strong link between asthma and allergy has...
Referral to an asthma specialist is advised under two general circumstances: the “tricky” diagnosis, and the need for expert evaluation or treatment. When to Consult an Asthma Specialist To establish the diagnosis If your “asthma”...
What makes a doctor an asthma specialist and how can I find out if my physician is a specialist in asthma care? An asthma specialist is a physician who has a special interest in treating...
Well-controlled, stable, treated asthma does not affect the lungs’ ability to extract needed oxygen from the air we breathe. Severe exacerbations of asthma, however, have the potential to significantly interfere with the lungs’ capacity to...
The fundamental goal of asthma therapy is the control of all symptoms, which in turn leads to normalization of lung function and prevention of exacerbations and hospitalizations and allows for an active, healthy lifestyle. Once...
Gemma’s comment: My daughter and I seem to be especially sensitive to certain foods, like soy and nuts. My daughter feels that if she has a cold, the skin of some foods (e.g., peaches and...
Perhaps the biggest asthma myth circulating today is summed up in the phrase no symptoms means no asthma. Wrong! The correct concept is “no symptoms means I still have asthma; I feel fine because my...
The National Asthma Education and Prevention Pro-gram’s EPR-3 emphasizes patient education and the forging of an ongoing active partnership between the patient and the treating healthcare provider in order to ensure optimal asthma treatment. The...
Gemma’s comment: I worked for many years in a large public building, which was often described as a “sick” building, in part because of its faulty ventilating system. I often noticed breathing problems, especially when...
The first report of what is now called the asthmatic triad appeared in 1922 in La Presse Médicale, a French medical journal. The authors of the report, Widal, Abrami, and Lermoyez, described an association between...
Exercise-induced asthma is an outdated phrase that makes little sense to an asthma specialist and that is confusing to boot! Exercise is a universal and common asthma trigger that is a cause of asthma symptoms...
Cough-variant asthma is a type of asthma in which cough is the dominant and sometimes only symptom. A person with cough-variant asthma experiences dry, generally nonproductive cough without wheezing or breathlessness. The cough in that...
Yes, several alternative classifications have recently been developed. They all acknowledge the fact that NAEPP classifications have been extremely useful in guiding asthma care and treatment over the years and have been widely used by...
Once asthma is diagnosed, the next step is to determine its severity in order to guide therapy. The NAEPP’s third Expert Panel Report (EPR-3) bases its classification of asthma on the frequency of asthma symptoms,...
The National Asthma Education and Prevention Pro-gram, or NAEPP, was founded in March 1989 to address the growing problem of asthma in the United States. Although much was understood about asthma itself, treatment and outcomes...
Bronchoscopy is a lung procedure that allows the physician to look directly into the bronchi and to obtain samples or biopsies of any abnormalities found in the bronchial tree. Bronchoscopy is said to be diagnostic...
When a physician needs information on how efficiently a patient’s lungs are functioning, an arterial blood gas (ABG) can provide the answer. The ABG is a blood test. Performance of a routine blood test requires...
A methacholine challenge test is a diagnostic test used in the evaluation of suspected asthma when reversibility is not demonstrated on initial spirometry. The methacholine challenge is also used for research purposes to study airway...
Pulmonary function tests (PFTs)—as the name implies— are tests designed to measure and assess lung function . PFTs were originally research tools, avail-able only in specialized academic hospital centers. They are now widely available and...
The most helpful diagnostic tests for suspected asthma are pulmonary function tests, often referred to as PFTs, and the single most important PFT, both for asthma diagnosis and for follow-up, is spirometry. Other useful medical...
Gemma’s comment: In my 60s, I had, at different times, two primary care physicians: one whose specialty was gastrointestinal medicine, the other whose specialty was cardiology. In routine interviews, they both asked if I coughed...