I. What is asthma?
Asthma is the abbreviation of bronchial asthma. It is a common but difficult to cure persistent disease, so the masses circulated “internal medicine does not cure asthma, cure asthma lost face” said. This disease is known as roaring, howling consumption, etc., caused by eating salty, sweet food, etc. is called eating roar. As early as in the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine and other ancestral medical texts, there are records about this disease, which belongs to the category of croup and wheezing, and has accumulated very rich and valuable experience in the etiology, pathogenesis and diagnosis and treatment, but so far there is still no ideal cure.
With the rapid development of modern medicine, people’s understanding of asthma has been deepened and improved. 1960s Japanese scholars discovered immunoglobulin E. Therefore, it is believed that asthma is a type I allergic disease in which the patient is allergic to certain substances in the external environment, causing the body to produce IgE, thus causing airway smooth muscle spasm and mucus hypersecretion, which in turn leads to wheezing attacks. The main treatment method is to relieve the spasm of airway smooth muscle, such as the application of bronchodilators like albuterol and aminophylline. Chen Xianhai, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Zhang Xingcai, Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Second, what are the hazards of asthma?
First of all, asthma attacks can cause great physical pain to patients due to wheezing or violent coughing, sweating profusely when lacking oxygen is serious, with a sense of near death, and repeated attacks can lead to serious complications such as emphysema, pulmonary heart disease and respiratory failure, which can seriously reduce the quality of life, lose the ability to work and study, and even endanger life. Secondly, it affects normal life, work and study.
According to a survey in the Asia-Pacific region, asthma is the most important chronic disease causing absence from work and school in China, amounting to 20%. Third, it can cause a heavy financial burden. Huge medical costs can impose a heavy economic burden on both families and society and become a serious public health problem.
Third, the typical manifestations of asthma?
The manifestations of asthma vary from mild discomfort or no conscious symptoms to life-threatening. A typical asthma attack is usually followed by nasal (throat) itching, sneezing, runny nose, coughing and other aura symptoms such as upper respiratory tract catarrh, followed soon by chest tightness, shortness of breath, irritating cough, labored expiration, expiratory dyspnea with wheezing sounds, and white foamy mucus-like sputum. On physical examination, croup can be heard in both lungs, and in case of co-infection, vesicular sounds and sputum sounds can be heard.
4. Signs of asthma attack (or aura)
1. Chronic cough, especially at night, early in the morning or after activity.
2. Chest tightness (breathlessness) or chest pain.
3.Sneezing, runny nose or itchy throat and nose, and tearing
4.Easy fatigue, faster than usual breathing, easy to catch breath, incoherent speech, etc.
5, dizziness, head swelling distracted, etc.
If you understand and are familiar with the aura of these attacks, you can take measures, such as resting immediately, sitting quietly and breathing slowly and deeply, drinking a glass of warm water, spraying asthma aerosol or taking bronchodilators or anti-allergic drugs if necessary, and taking oral prednisone to prevent asthma attacks in heavier cases.
V. Commonly used drugs for the treatment of asthma.
They can be divided into two major categories: long-term control drugs and rapid relief drugs.
(A) long-term control drugs (i.e. anti-inflammatory agents)
1, adrenocortical steroid hormone: there are oral, inhalation, injection and other dosage forms, acting on the multiple pathogenesis of asthma. Such as co-corticosterone, pramipexole, sulforaphane, and shinbik, etc. The compound aerosols of fluticasone and salmeterol have been marketed abroad.
2, leukotriene receptor antagonists: such as cisplatin (white triptan), zileuton.
3.Kairetan (loratadine), centrum (cetirizine), kestrin (epalrestine), fexofenadine, azelastine and levocetirizine, used for adjuvant therapy.
(ii) Rapid relief agents (bronchodilators)
1. β2 agonists: fast-acting short-acting ones such as salbutamol (albuterol, albuterol), Bolycanib (terbutaline, asthmacontrol), coughs and asthma (clenbuterol, aminoglutethimide), etc. Medium- and long-acting preparations of Meprobamate (procatheterol), long-acting aerosols such as Bambutrol and Amidi (tolterol) patch, formoterol and salmeterol, etc.
2, theophylline drugs: such as aminophylline extended-release or controlled-release theophylline (chawhepine, Shufumei, Baolehui, etc.), asthma, doxorubicin.
3, M choline receptor blockers: Adequan (ipratropium bromide), cortisone, etc.