Purpura and cutaneous atrophy as side effects of inhaled corticosteroids in asthma therapy: a review

Abstract

Although asthma was recognised by Hippocrates as a disease over 2000 years ago, its presence in the population has only become significant since the advent of the industrial revolution, and even then only since the overwhelming widespread effects of infectious diseases and malnutrition have receded to reveal the scale of the problem. It has only become of major concern since about the middle of this century. Asthma is a disease characterised by wide variations over short periods of time in resistance to airflow in intrapulmonary airways [1]. This basic definition should be expanded to include the common symptoms of recurrent wheezing, airways hyperresponsiveness, frequent associations with exacerbation at night and induction by exogenous factors such as exercise and cold. Although there is difficulty in some cases of distinguishing asthma from other obstructive airways diseases, especially bronchitis, the proven reversibility of obstruction of at least 10-20% will usually sustain a diagnosis of asthma [2].