Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways with reversible outflow obstruction, associated with bronchial hyper-responsiveness. About 15% of children have asthma. Many have symptoms that affect their education and quality of life, and each year about 40 die. Persistent symptoms and poor control are linked with lack of information, poor compliance or poor inhaler technique.
Chronic asthma is managed almost entirely in primary care. Management is a team approach aimed to keep the child symptom-free with normal quality of life.
The diagnosis of asthma is clinical, resting on history and signs.
History
Remember not all wheezes and chronic coughs are due to asthma.
The key features for the diagnosis of asthma are:
- Recurrent wheeze – expiratory and high pitched, often worse at night or early morning.
- Tightness of the chest and breathlessness.
- Recurrent cough – dry, non-paroxysmal, often worse at night.
- Trigger factors (e.g. URTI, pets, dust, cold, exercise, smoke).
- Family history of atopy.
- Other atopic symptoms
Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel
Full access? Get Clinical Tree
