Essay On Concomitant Asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway that impacts a person’s and their family’s quality of life. In people with asthma, their airway becomes constricted with swelling and excessive mucous. This constriction or narrowing of the airway makes it difficult for the person with asthma to breath (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2009). If asthma is left uncontrolled, it leads to further wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, tiredness, and stress. (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2009).

CF multi-disciplinary team also undertakes clinical research of the condition, where new treatment and therapies are

Nearly 1 in every 30 Americans are a carrier of the recessive gene that leads to CF (About Cystic Fibrosis, n.d.). Although CF is a life-threatening condition, through the advancement of treatments and care, there has been a steady increase in life expectancy and improvement in the quality of life. The current mean age of survival is now 40. Although that does not seem very high, sixty years ago, a child diagnosed with CF did not survive childhood (About Cystic Fibrosis, n.d.). CF is a complex disease, where the types and severity of symptoms can differ widely from person to person. Symptoms may include fatigue, salty-tasting skin, persistent cough with phlegm, wheezing and shortness of breath, lung infections, and poor growth and weight loss (Cystic Fibrosis Symptoms, Causes & Risk Factors, 2018). Many different factors, such as the age of diagnosis, can affect an individual's health and the course of the

Brand PL, van der Ent CK. The Practical Application and Interpretation of Simple Lung Function Tests in Cystic Fibrosis. J R Soc Med. 1999;92 (Suppl 37):2–12. [PMC free article] [PubMed]

Cystic fibrosis is an existence restricting autosomal recessive disorder that influences 70,000 people around the world. The condition is known to affect principally those of European descent, though cystic fibrosis has been accounted for in all races and ethnicities. [12] Unusually viscous emissions in the airway of the lungs and in ducts of the pancreas in people with cystic fibrosis cause hindrances that prompt aggravation, tissue harm and destruction of both organ systems. Studies show that Cystic Fibrosis is more prominent in White Americans than African Americans, and Hispanics. A large number of Americans are carriers of this mutated Cystic Fibrosis gene, however if an individual is affected they must acquire two of these genes keeping

With CF people lack the special enzyme to break up mucous. Without the mucous breaking up the person cannot breathe because the lungs are filled. In life the body cannot function with enough oxygen.

A widely accepted Caucasian disease has since changed; as cases of its existence are appearing in the South Asian Population (Orenstein, Rosenstein and Stern, 2000). First discovered in 1989, Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetically predetermined condition, its presences is lifelong and highly complex, which is why many CF sufferers and families develop various mechanisms in order to adapt to the condition (Tippingemail, Scholes, Cox, 2010). Cystic Fibrosis causes the body to develop thick, sticky mucus which clogs the lungs and affects other organs in the body, mainly the pancreas. The layer of mucus if untreated develops in to a chronic infection which can be detrimental. The pancreas of a CF patient is most vulnerable, once the mucus has

Cystic Fibrosis is a single gene disease, the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Regulator gene is what causes CF, more than 900 mutations of this single gene has been discovered. Every person inherits two CFTR genes, one from each parent. Children who inherit a faulty CFTR gene from each parent will have CF. Children who inherit one faulty CFTR gene and one normal CFTR

Nonetheless, the disease is most common among Caucasians of Northern European descent. Latinos and American Indians are commonly affected too (NHBLI, 2013). According to Beery and Workman (2012), the prevalence rate of CF in the United States among Caucasians is 1 in 3000 live births, whereas a carrier status is estimated to be at 1 in 20 to 30 Caucasian Americans (p. 192). To contrast, the probability of CF in Hispanic American populations is 1 in 13, 500 and 1 in 15,100 for African American. An estimated 70, 000 individuals suffer from cystic fibrosis worldwide with 30,000 of that total residing in the United States. In addition, approximately 1,000 new cases are diagnosed each year (Schechter,

CF is found in nearly one of every three-thousand live births. But more than eighty percent of the patients are diagnosed by age three. Today, nearly forty percent of the diagnosed inhabitants are at the age of eight-teen or older.

Breathing is a vital process for every human. Normal breathing is practically effortless for most people, but those with asthma face a great challenge. During an asthma attack, breathing is hampered, making it difficult or even impossible for air to flow through the lungs. Asthma is an increasingly common problem, and has become the most common chronic childhood disease. At least 17 million Americans suffer from it(1), and although it can be fatal, it is usually not that severe(4). There is no cure for asthma, but with proper care, it can usually be controlled.

Throughout the years knowledge about asthma has grown, as well as treating it effectively. Over 300 million people are said to be victims of this disease with another 100 million being estimated by 2025 globally (Currie and Baker, 2012). In the United Kingdom, asthma is increasingly becoming one of the leading disease affecting individual of different age, ethnicity, race and gender. British Lung Foundation (2011) stated that it is more common at childhood stage and can also occur at a later age. According to Asthma UK (2014) asthma in men is less prevalence than it is in women and children troubled more with asthma than adults. Recent data in the UK shows that in children and occupational asthma in adult is on the rise with an estimate

Here are some other changes affecting CF patients: Crackles, non-productive or productive cough, physical changes to the chest cavity, cyanosis, and clubbing of the fingernails. Genetic testing should be done since cystic fibrosis is an inherited disorder. Those affected with cystic fibrosis have parents “who do not have cystic fibrosis but are heterozygotes or carriers of the disease. A heterozygote has 1 dominant allele and 1 recessive allele.” (Grossman & Grossman, 2005, p. 46) My co-worker and her spouse are heterozygotes, and they have a 50/50 chance of having a cystic fibrosis child, they were not lucky with the odds and both their sons are affected with cystic fibrosis. These

Despite advances in newborn screening and treatments for CF, clinical heterogeneity remains a major challenge [2]. Modifier genes that may impact CF disease severity are emerging keys to deciphering clinical heterogeneity [3-6].

CF patients present a diverse amount of manifestations and degrees of severity, which could initially be attributed to allele heterogeneity (Keren et al, 1990). The CFTR mutations were strongly correlated with exocrine function disturbances and well imputed to hypertonic sweat. Although, CFTR disorder alone could not determinate lung phenotype. The literature describes a strong influence of genetic and non-genetic variations in airway manifestations of CF. Cutting et al’s meta-analysis (Cutting et al. 2016) found that genetic modifiers were responsible for 50% of variations in lung conditions. The remaining portion was mainly attributed to environmental and stochastic influence (see Figure 1). At least 50 encoding genes have been investigated for influencing CF phenotype (Cutting 2015). A list of these genes is beyond the purpose of the present work.