Asthma Research Paper

History of Present Illness: Ms. Johnson is a very pleasant 66-year-old woman who was previously evaluated in this office by Elvira Aguila, MD for the diagnosis of asthma. She was last seen in January 2015. She states that overall, she has done well. However, over the last two to three weeks, she has noticed increasing shortness of breath as well as productive cough, rhinorrhea and postnasal drip. She states that she has been using her rescue inhaler above and beyond what is normal for her up to 10 times a day yesterday and she states that she has had some improvement in her symptoms with her short acting bronchodilator. She denies any fevers or chills.

At various stages of asthma, preventative measures can be used to control or alleviate the symptoms associated with this disease. Education is an important component to every intervention phase, particularly in primary prevention, because the patient is encouraged to be proactive with their personal health in order to avoid and control the triggers. Prescribed medication, such as an inhaler, and an action plan that is individualized to the specific care of a particular patient is essential in the secondary prevention phase. Finally, in the tertiary prevention phase, the care is directed not only at the common asthmatic symptoms and triggers but also at the complications that result from long-term suffering of this disease. This paper focuses on environmental factors which trigger asthma, with specific focus on children from infancy to 16 years of age in low-income housing, and how the appropriate measure can minimize the triggers and symptoms. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the example we will use.

What is asthma? • Disease of the lungs that makes it hard to breathe. • Breathing tubes in the lungs that carry oxygen tighten. • This makes it hard for air to pass through the lungs.

“Sarah is at Children's Hospital, in the ICU”. Those are the words that changed my life. Sarah is extremely sick and it's making me want to be smart, strong, and kind. My sister, Sarah had lung failure when she was in 7th grade, she was hospitalized and stayed at Children’s Hospital in the ICU for around a week. Nearly a year later they found out what was wrong with her, she has Chronic Eosinophilic Pneumonia and Severe Asthma. When I saw her get sick I saw her being strong, nice, and keeping up on school work she made me want to have these qualities as well.

About 10% of American children have asthma (Thakur et al., 2013). It is vital to understand what determinants cause childhood asthma to understand even with a low percentage, why it is still present. According to Williams et al., asthma is a health outcome which is a major impact on American youth (Williams et al., 2009). This health outcome not only impacts them throughout the years of being a child, but it has the potential of creating more serious health problems in the future. And without knowing what the causes are, it increases the rate asthma among children and prevents treatments from being implemented. It needs to be addressed by using results from prior studies in order to show how much of a problem childhood asthma is but also in finding and understanding the other underlying

- Another initiative of Asthma Australia, Asthma Kids is a fun, interactive website to teach children with asthma about their condition.

Physicians who hypothesize asthma as their patient’s diagnoses will focus their physical examination on the upper respiratory tract, chest, and skin. When performing lung auscultations during normal breaths or during prolonged phase of expiration, sounds of wheezing will mostly likely be heard. Dyspnea and wheezing since childhood is like to be asthma or COPD; however, patients older than 40 years old who complain of wheezing typically manifest from heart failure and is said to have cardiac asthma.4 Postural observations in patients with asthma include: hyper expansion of the thorax (especially in children), use of accessory muscles, appearance of hunched shoulders, and chest deformity. Increased nasal secretion, mucosal swelling, and eczema are also seen in patients with asthma.5 The most common pulmonary function test for diagnosis of asthma is spirometry. According to Schneider et al., the efficacy of spirometry in diagnoses of asthma has sensitivity of 29%, specificity of 90%, positive predictive value of 77%, and negative predictive value of 53%. 6 Spirometry is useful for ruling in asthma; however, cannot be utilized for ruling out asthma. Although patient history and physical examination help identify asthma, it does not determine the severity of asthma. Patients are instructed to breathe in until maximal inhalation, and then forcibly exhale into the spirometer

The proof is mounting that bronchial asthma| instead of being a single disease is a set of sickness groups with particular causes partly overlapping clinical and physiological characteristics. The phenotypic heterogeneity amongst asthmatic patients is obvious at more than one level along with the degree of airway obstruction, a variety of airway inflammation, the presence of airway remodeling, and reaction to treatment(33). In spite of the fact that asthma has for quite some time been viewed as a heterogeneous disease, attempts to characterize subgroups of asthma have been restricted. As of late, both clinical and statistical methodologies have been used to better consolidation clinical qualities, science, and genetics(34). A phenotype is described

In the world of pharmaceuticals, “there is a continuing interest in developing once-daily medications to further simplify treatment regimens and improve patient compliance”, especially when treating COPD and Asthma 1. “Suitable therapies for asthma and COPD need to provide targeted, long lasting and consistent efficacy” 2. This research paper summarizes the current clinical findings of a new drug called Abediterol a LABA. In addition to this, we will also summarize the most current research on abediterol versus the current SABA’s albuterol, and LABA’s salmeterol, indacaterol, olodaterol, and vilanterol in its treatment of asthma. Abediterol is a promising new potent LABA, currently in Phase II development. This is a drug that is used as a once daily treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD and asthma in combination with an Inhaled Corticosteroids ICS 3.

Asthma is a long-term medical condition that affects the airways. When a person has asthma the walls of the air tubes that transport the air in and out of the lungs become irritated and swollen. In this condition, the air tubes get smaller and the cells produce more mucus than usual clogging the air tubes and preventing the air to reach the lungs. This disease makes the airways very sensitive, in consequence they may be greatly affected by any allergic reaction a person may have. Asthma affects people of all ages, there is an average of 25 million people affected by this condition in the united states. People that have a family history with asthma and allergies are more likely to have this condition.

I have chosen to research Asthma because it one I am familiar with due to the fact that many of my friends have it. It makes me sad when those of my friends have so sit out on activates due to the illness, or else can’t even go outside in certain conditions. Luckily, there are ways to help treat Asthma, but no known cure for it. That’s why I would like to research this disease so I can help raise some awareness of it and better understand my friend’s perspective of having asthma.

Asthma is an allergic disorder of respiration, characterized by bronchospasm, wheezing, and difficulty in expiration, often accompanied by coughing and a feeling of constriction in the chest. Currently, there are 26 million Americans affected by asthma— 19 million adults and 7 million children — and Asthma becomes one of the leading causes of absences from work and school. Asthma often runs in families; according to the World Health Organization, about half the cases are due to genetic susceptibility and half result from environmental factors. The most common signs of asthma are: coughing (especially at night, during exercise or when laughing), difficulty breathing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and Wheezing (a whistling or squeaky sound

It is quite unfortunate and really embarrassing but I do have a failed class listed as well as a D-. During this term, I missed almost an entire month of school combined and over two weeks in a row at the very beginning of the term. This was due to a severe respiratory infection that triggered my asthma and continued to damage my health throughout the rest of the term. I was essentially unable to walk even short distances and could not leave my home for those two weeks and even the strong medications that had worked in the past only made me feel sicker and less like myself. During the rest of the term I struggled to catch up and learn the important material that was covered in the beginning but it was not just my physical health that held me

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch plummeted six feet of rain on Central America in 3 days. In its wake, the incidence of malaria, dengue fever, cholera, and leptospirosis soared. In 2000, rain and three cyclones inundated Mozambique for six weeks, and the incidence of malaria rose fivefold. In 2003, a summer heat wave in Europe killed tens of thousands of people, wilted crops, set forests ablaze, and melted 10 percent of the Alpine glacial mass.

Asthma can lead to some dangerous occurrences. For example, asthma attacks are a result of everyday asthma. An asthma attack happens in the lungs, making the airways swell and shrink. The airways clog up with air pushing out and mucus, making it feel like it’s difficult to breathe. During an asthma attack, coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and trouble with breathing occurs.