Bronchial asthma
is a disease of the bronchi that can be caused by a variety of allergic and non-allergic factors.
The leading clinical manifestations of the disease are episodes of shortness of breath, especially at night, accompanied by coughing. Patients often characterize this shortness of breath as discomfort when breathing, a feeling of tightness in the chest, and difficulty in exhaling. Sometimes, when breathing deeply, in the classic version, wheezing is felt when exhaling, which is also heard during auscultation.
There is also a special variant of asthma – “cough”, which manifests itself only as a paroxysmal dry cough, but it is possible that this is only a stage in the development of the disease.
Bronchial obstruction
The basis of the above clinical manifestations of the disease is the so-called bronchial obstruction (impaired passage of air through the bronchi during exhalation). The leading mechanism of bronchial obstruction is inflammation of the airways, which is accompanied by spasm of the bronchi due to contraction of the muscular layer, swelling (thickening) of the mucous membrane and partial blockage of the lumen of the bronchi with viscous mucus. The contribution of each specific mechanism is individual in different patients.
Thus, asthma is a chronic inflammation of the airways, accompanied by narrowing of the bronchi, which without treatment can lead to significant impairment of respiratory function and a decrease in the quality of life of patients.
At the same time, with timely and correctly prescribed treatment, in the vast majority of cases it is possible to prevent the progression of the disease or even achieve the disappearance of the main symptoms of the disease and restore normal quality of life (we will talk about this later).