Allergic asthma in adults is considered to be one of the most frequent chronic lung inflammatory diseases. It manifests through recurring episodes of whizzing, laboured breathing, cough. The symptoms can be relieved spontaneously or with medicaments. The disease is not completely curable, yet it can be kept under control. In more than a half of patients, the first symptoms occur in childhood before the tenth year of age. Asthma types:
– Allergic asthma
– Atopic asthma
– Non-allergic asthma (infective asthma due to viruses or bacteria)
– Vigourous exercise-induced asthma
– Occupational asthma
The allergic asthma is the condition of breathing pathways sensitivity to irritants, so that the bronchi, when in contact with them, contract more than usual. About 50 per cent of adult patients have allergic asthma. The main risk factor is sensitivity to respiratory allergens, i.e. irritants such as: house dust, mites, tree weed and grass pollens, mould, animal hairs and excretions, smoke, tobacco, etc.Obesity aggravates asthma symptoms. Smoking aggravates the patients’ condition.
TREATMENT
The first step in the allergic asthma treatment is the avoidance of contacts with allergens, as much as possible. The ideal measure is a climatic change during the occurrence of the seasonal allergen, the patient is sensitised to.
The treatment starts two or three weeks before the occurrence of the symptoms. The therapy is carried out using disease control drugs most often inhaled nebulised corticosteroids. With the aggravation of the disease, problems relief medicines are introduced and after a physician’s examination without fail. Immunotherapy or hyposensitisation is a kind of allergic disease treatment using small, graded allergen doses the patient was sensitised to in order to improve the antigen tolerance. The whole procedure lasts three to five years.
The persons with well-controlled allergic asthma, those who regularly take the prescribed medication regularly can live normal lives practicing all kinds of sports. Some of the top world and Serbian athletes live with bronchial asthma.
The proper recognition and timely start in allergic asthma treatment are a prerequisite for further proper lung development and function.
Prim Jelena Zdravković, MD
Specialist in lung diseases
