Asthma and medicine management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Asthma and medicine management - Essay Example It is a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) which is a long-term pulmonary disease characterized by increased airflow resistance. Other types of COPD include chronic bronchitis and emphysema. 2) Incidence of asthma and implications of this. There are an estimated 234.9 million people affected by Asthma worldwide of which 28.8 million are in Europe and about 5.4 million are in the U.K. Incidence of new cases occurs mostly in children. In England about 64,000 hospital admissions took place for asthma in 2008/09. Globally 287000 deaths occurred in 2004 and there were 1034 deaths in England and Wales due to asthma in 2008 (Ward, Toledano, Shaddick, Davies, & Elliot, 2012). (NICE, 2013). 3) What are the common signs and symptoms of asthma? Common symptoms are wheezing, breathlessness, tightness in the chest, and cough. These symptoms can be worse at night and in early morning. They can arise after exercise, allergen exposure and cold air (Meerabeau & Wright, 2011). 4) Pa thophysiology of asthma and relation to the case scenario. ... â€Å"Mononuclear cell and eosinophill infiltration, mucus hyper-secretion, desquamation of epithelium, smooth muscle hyperplasia and airway remodeling† (Morris & Mosenifar, 2013) are also characteristics of airway inflammation. Airflow obstruction Airflow obstruction results due to changes taking place in the form of acute bronchoconstriction, airway edema, and chronic mucus plug formation, and airway remodeling. Acutebronchoconstriction occurs due to exposure to aeroallergens when immunoglobulin E-dependent mediator is released. The aeroallergen exposure which is the primary reason for the early asthmatic response causes edema in the away that occurs after 6-24 hours which is known as the late asthmatic response. Chronic mucus plug formation will take several weeks to subside as it contains exudates of serum proteins and cell debris. Airway remodeling is so called because of structural changes occurring due chronic inflammation and can affect the reversibility of airway obst ruction. Airway obstruction results in reduced airflow in and out of the respiratory system. This leads to lowered ability to expel air resulting in hyperinflation. The airway remodeling causes overdistension which helps maintain airway function and improve expiratory flow but overtime it alters pulmonary mechanics and increases breathing modulation. Bronchial hyperresponsiveness Hyperinflation which is in response to airflow obstruction is however is short-lived due to tidal volume approaching the volume of the pulmonary deadspace and the resultant is known as alveolar hypoventilation. It leads to ventilation-perfusion mismatch. The mismatch is also due to vasoconstriction as a result of alveolar hypoxia. Vasoconstriction is also an adaptive response to the above said mismatch (Morris &