Bronchial Asthma

Hi,

I am Dr. Parthiv Atul Kumar Shah, Pulmonologist, Ashok One Hospital, Sanchaiti Hospital, Rohit Nursing Home & Apex Super speciality Hospital, Mumbai. Today I will talk about bronchial asthma. Why is this so important in the current scenario. India's rate is 42% in bronchial asthma. The rest of the world accounts for less than 120%. What is bronchial asthma? It is characterized by 4 most common symptoms. First, wheezing in which the patient gets whee sound from the chest. 2nd is a cough where the patient feels chest tightness. 3rd is breathlessness, it may be at rest or at the time of the exertion.

What are the respiratory factors or how do you get in bronchial asthma? It is usually a hereditary disease. It is usually precipitated by exposure to allergens. The most common allergens which we have around us are house dust allergens, grass, pollens, fungi, cockroaches, pesticides and more. How do we diagnose bronchial asthma? There are 2 most common methods which are used for diagnosing bronchial asthma. First is the peak respiratory flow rate which is a routine test and can be done in OPD. 2nd, most important is spirometry.

By this, we check the lung value and capacity in which the patient is asked to blow through a small pipe and we check the lung values. After this, we recheck the values, if there is significant reversibility, it suggests that the patient has bronchial asthma. This is the diagnostic criteria for bronchial asthma. Now, how do we treat the patient? The most important treatment for bronchial asthma is by bronchodilator. The other forms of therapy include chest physiotherapy, vaccination. Risk factors for bronchial asthma are gastritis, obesity which are the few and allergic rhinitis in the particular patient. Vaccination is much more important as recurrent infection may precipitate bronchial asthma.

For more information, you can contact me through Lybrate.

Thank You.