Asthma

Asthma
Asthma, from the Greek Άσθμα (ásthma), meaning gasp, is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm.[1] Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath.[2]
Treatment of acute symptoms is usually with an inhaled short-acting beta-2 agonist (such as salbutamol).[3] Symptoms can be prevented by avoiding triggering such as allergens[4] and irritants and by using inhaled corticosteroids.[5] Leukotriene antagonists are less effective than corticosteroids and thus less preferred.
As of 2009, 300 million people worldwide were affected by asthma leading to 250,000 deaths per year.[6] Rates have increased significantly over the last 40 years. Prognosis is good with treatment.

Classification

|Clinical classification of severity[7]                                                                                     |
|Severity                     |Symptom frequency       |Nighttime symptoms       | %FEV1 of predicted   |FEV1 Variability     |
|Intermittent                 |2 per month             |≥80%                 |20–30%               |
|                             |but 1 per week             |60–80%               |>30%                 |
|Severe persistent           |Daily                   |Frequent                 |30%                 |

Asthma is clinically classified according to the frequency of symptoms, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), and peak expiratory flow rate.[7] Asthma may also be classified as atopic (extrinsic) or non-atopic (intrinsic), based on whether symptoms are precipitated by allergens (atopic) or not (non-atopic).[8]
While asthma is classified based on severity, at the moment there is no clear method for classifying different subgroups of asthma beyond this system.[9] Within the classifications described above, although the cases of asthma respond to the same treatment differs, thus it is clear... [continues]

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