Bronchial asthma in the work of a general practitioner

Abstract

Bronchial asthma is a heterogeneous disease, characterized by chronic inflammation of the airways and certain respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest tightness, cough, and sibilant rale. All symptoms vary in intensity and duration, occur at any time of the day, but especially often at night or in the early morning, and present with variable airway obstruction. It is one of the most common diseases: there are about 348 million patients in the world, with 32 million patients in Europe. According to experts in the Russian Federation, the prevalence of bronchial asthma is 6.9 % in adult population and about 10 % in children and adolescents. The disease can occur at any age; approximately in half of patients, bronchial asthma develops before the age of 10, and in third — before the age of 40. Among children with asthma, there are 2 times more boys than girls; by the age of 30, this ratio levels off. The death rate from asthma in children is 2.5 per million (about 185 patients).