Bronchial asthma is a pulmonary disease which is characterized by abrupt airway constriction. It causes rales, coughing, chest tightness and dyspnoea. These symptoms may vary in severity depending on the airway constriction (obstruction) degree. Some patients have rare attacks, while others may suffer from symptoms every day.
There is no known reason for asthma occurrence, but most likely it is a maze of problems at different levels of the human body. But it is well known that asthma attacks can be triggered by a variety of reasons – animals, plants, air pollution, catarrhal diseases, medicaments intake.
Fortunately, nowadays there are highly effective drugs for this disease. All these medicaments can be found in Canadian Health&Care Mall which provides good service and high-quality drugs. Consulting a doctor and prescription of these drugs in time help to prevent disease exacerbations problems and improve quality of life.
Types of Asthma
Depending on the factors causing exacerbation, this disease is divided into different clinical forms: allergic, nutritional (food), Aspirin-sensitive, infective, and steroid-dependent and exercise-induced asthma.
- Allergic (atopic). Rhinitis, conjunctivitis and bronchus combination are typical symptoms. Blood tests show an increase of IgE levels. Often it is accompanied by lingering exacerbations. Genetic predisposition to allergic diseases can be observed. It may show itself as an epidemic attack;
- Nutritional Caused by some food products. Asthma attack begins after 8-12 hours after a meal, due to this fact the patients are rarely able to relate attacks to a certain product. Medical history often has references to other allergic diseases which usually occur under the influence of dietary factors (exudative diathesis, urticaria fever, atopic dermatitis);
- Aspirin-sensitive. Characterized by a complex of symptoms: nasal polyp, rhinitis, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs intolerance. Their intake causes an attack. Polyps can also be localized in gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts. It manifests with a severe course. The death rate reaches 10%, due to sudden anaphylactoid reactions after taking NSAIDs or food with high salicylate concentration;
- Infective. Has a rich variety of clinical signs. As a rule, it is characterized by severe course, can cause disablement;
- Exercise-induced. In most cases appears at young ages. Attacks are caused by brisk walking, running, laughing, fear and other physical exercise or emotion. An attack does not occur at the moment of the procatarxis impact, but at the rest state (5-10 minutes later).
Pathogenesis of Bronchial Asthma
According to the modern concept, asthma has an inflammatory nature. Inflammation can be induced by contact with an allergen, industrial pollutions or acute viral infection. It is Considered to be continuous, regardless of its severity.
Genetic factor plays a special role in the disease development. People with genetic predisposition the disease appears in early childhood and has a more severe course. Exacerbations may be triggered by a wider allergens variety and other factors.
The disease manifestation is influenced by:
- age;
- airborne allergen;
- industrial air pollution;
- weather conditions;
- previous respiratory tract infections (especially viral);
- psychoemotional factors.
Clinical Characteristics of the Disease
Clinical characteristics of bronchial asthma are diverse and include the pathologic process of not only respiratory tract but also the skin cover, gastrointestinal tract, psychoemotional spheres, blood-forming and visual organs.
The frequency of occurrence and symptom load widely vary and depend on the degree of airway obstruction, type, and course of the disease.
There are two basic variants of bronchial asthma:
- intermittent – characterized by long-lasting remission (attack-free intervals), sometimes lasting for decades;
- persistent – characterized by continuous exacerbations, the inability of sustained remission.
Symptoms of Asthma
During remission period patients with uncomplicated asthma course don’t usually suffer from symptoms and signs. Some patients on intense exhale or after physical exercise have dry mono wheezes and sibilant rales.
Acute asthma is characterized by the following symptoms:
- dyspnoea;
- a non-productive cough;
- sibilant rales;
- chest tightness and shortness of breath.
Different combination of these symptoms is possible. Attacks result in the discharge of pituita, bringing relief to the patient.
Exacerbations usually occur because of undertreatment or contact with a risk factor. Attacks appear more often in the morning or at night, may be triggered by risk factors. Usually, recrudescence increases during several hours or days, sometimes – during few minutes.
General Principles of Asthma Treatment
Asthma treatment pursues following objectives:
- chronic and unpleasant symptoms prevention(e. g. a cough and apneusis at night, early in the morning or after physical exercise);
- maintaining a (near) «normal» pulmonary function;
- maintaining normal activity level (including exercise and other physical activities);
- preventing further recrudescence and minimizing the necessity of calling an ambulance and emergency hospitalization;
- maintaining optimal drug therapy with the minimal number of side effects, or complete lack thereof (Many online pharmacies offer a wide range of the latest drugs that cause minimal side effects);
- satisfying patients and their relatives with the results of treatment.
The absence of clinical signs of the disease does not except current respiratory tract inflammatory process, so the basic anti-inflammatory therapy should be carried out regardless of the severity of the condition.