ASTHMA



ASTHMA

Introduction

Asthma is an illness that affects the airways that perform the functions of carrying out air from and to the lungs. Individuals who experience from this chronic stipulation either recurrent or long-lasting are known to be asthmatic. The inner walls of the airways of an asthmatic are inflamed and swollen. This inflammation or swelling makes the airways highly sensitive to any sort of irritations and augments the level of susceptibility to a reaction of allergy. It is an incurable disease. Thus, with effective management and good treatment, there is no rationale that why an asthmatic patient cannot live an active and normal life. This disease is characterized by reversible obstruction of airflow, recurring and variable symptoms, and bronchospasm and some common symptoms are coughing, wheezing, breath shortness, and chest tightness. In this paper, there will be a discussion about pathophysiology of Asthma in the detail and then there will be a little diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Discussion

Asthma is usually caused by an amalgamation of environmental and hereditary factors. Its diagnosis is generally founded on the prototype of symptoms, therapy response with time, and spirometry. Some other classifications of Asthma are as intrinsic (non-atopic) or extrinsic (atopic), where the term “atopy” means a predisposition towards development of hypersensitivity of type 1 reactions (Kindermann, 2007).

Pathophysiology

In asthma, inflammation and irritation causes the airways becoming narrower and due to that less air is able to pass through them, both from and to the lungs. Asthma is an outcome of chronic airways soreness which later results in augmented contraction of the adjoining smooth muscles. This leads to sessions of airways' narrowing amongst several factors and the typical symptoms of breathlessness. This act of narrowing may be particularly reversed without or with the help of treatment. Often the airways alter themselves. Such particular alterations in the airways are inclusive of an increased eosinophlis and thickening of the reticularis of lamina. Unceasingly the sooth muscles of the airways may enlarge in their actual sizes simultaneously with an augmentation of various glands of mucous. Several other kinds of cells that are included in the process are macrophages, neutrophils, and T lymphocytes. There may also be participation of several other immune systems' components that are inclusive of histamine, chemokines, leukotrienes, and cytokines amongst many. In order to treat the acute symptoms of Asthma, an inhaled short acting agonist of beta-2 (salbutamol) is used, and corticosteroids are ...