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Symptoms To Watch For When Diagnosing Asthma
Asthma is a chronic lung condition that results in difficulty breathing. A person suffering from asthma has hyper-responsive airways which get irritated during an asthma attack, and react by becoming constricted, leading to less air being able to get through to and from the lungs.
Some of the early symptoms of asthma include the following:
- Difficulty breathing
- Wheezing
- Coughing, even if the person doesn't have a cold or flu
- Tightness or pain in the chest
- Itchy throat
- Runny nose
A person who regularly exhibits any of these symptoms should see their doctor or an allergist as quickly as possible. The sooner you can get a proper diagnosis, the easier it will be to treat.
Your doctor will initially inquire as to how often you experience the symptoms listed above, other medications you may be taking, whether there is a history of allergies or asthma in your family and whether you can identify anything that seems to make the problem worse.
They may also use a piece of equipment called a spirometer to diagnose the function of your airways. This device will measure how much air and how quickly you can blow it out of your lungs. If your airways are constricted due to asthma, the airflow will be lower than normal.
If your airflow is determined to be less than usual, the doctor may give you some medication to help open your airways and then run the test again to see if there is any improvement.
If your test results are normal but you still exhibit symptoms of asthma, you may need to undergo further testing to find the cause. These tests may include any of the following:
- Allergy testing
- Peak flow testing
- Testing airflow after exercise
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) testing
- Testing for sinus disease
Further tests such as an electrocardiogram or chest xray may be necessary to ensure there is not some other type of lung disease or heart disease causing the problem as some of their symptoms are very similar to asthma's.
The results of this testing will be able to tell you how severe the asthma is, if it is determined to be the cause. Chronic asthma has four levels of severity, classified as follows (exercise induced asthma symptoms are not considered chronic and are not included in this list):
- Mild Intermittent: you experience symptoms twice a week or less and you experience them at night twice a month or less
- Mild Persistent: you experience symptoms more than twice a week but no more than once a day, and you experience symptoms at night more than twice a month. The asthma attacks may affect your daily activity.
- Moderate Persistent: you experience asthma symptoms daily and at night more than once a week. These symptoms may affect your daily activity.
- Severe Persistent: you experience symptoms throughout the day and experience them at night on a regular basis. These symptoms more than likely will affect your physical activity.
