Asthma attack symptoms

Written by Wang Xiang Yu
Pulmonology
Updated on September 19, 2024
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The most common manifestation of an asthma attack is inspiratory difficulty breathing, occurring repeatedly. This respiratory difficulty can present as sitting up to breathe, dry cough, and may include white frothy sputum. Some patients, due to severe hypoxia, may develop cyanosis. Besides these typical symptoms, some patients may have cough-variant asthma or chest tightness-variant asthma. Cough-variant asthma can sometimes involve only coughing, which is mostly severe, dry, and more noticeable at night, unresponsive to antibiotic treatment. Additionally, there is a type of asthma characterized by chest tightness, primarily presenting as chest discomfort, and some patients may also experience nausea or other discomforts.

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Written by Wang Xiang Yu
Pulmonology
1min 22sec home-news-image

What department should I go to for asthma?

What department should you visit for asthma? First, we need to clarify the definition of asthma. The term "asthma" most commonly refers to bronchial asthma, but also to cardiac asthma. Starting with bronchial asthma, it is a respiratory system disease, and the most appropriate department to visit is the Department of Respiratory Medicine. Of course, in the case of an acute attack of bronchial asthma, if the condition of the patient is very severe, then they may choose to visit the emergency department. Additionally, in some areas where there is no Department of Respiratory Medicine available, such as in rural areas or community health centers, patients can only visit a general internal medicine department. As for cardiac asthma, it is a concept that is gradually being phased out. Cardiac asthma, as the name suggests, is associated with cardiovascular system diseases. Under these circumstances, the most fitting department to visit is the Department of Cardiology. Of course, if the patient's condition is critical, then the most suitable choice is still the emergency department, where emergency physicians will decide how to handle the patient's condition based on their specific medical needs.

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Written by Wang Xiang Yu
Pulmonology
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Asthma attack symptoms

The most common manifestation of an asthma attack is inspiratory difficulty breathing, occurring repeatedly. This respiratory difficulty can present as sitting up to breathe, dry cough, and may include white frothy sputum. Some patients, due to severe hypoxia, may develop cyanosis. Besides these typical symptoms, some patients may have cough-variant asthma or chest tightness-variant asthma. Cough-variant asthma can sometimes involve only coughing, which is mostly severe, dry, and more noticeable at night, unresponsive to antibiotic treatment. Additionally, there is a type of asthma characterized by chest tightness, primarily presenting as chest discomfort, and some patients may also experience nausea or other discomforts.

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Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
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Is variant asthma allergic asthma?

Cough-variant asthma is not allergic asthma, although it is a type of allergic asthma. Generally speaking, there is a certain distinction between cough-variant asthma and allergic asthma. Clinically, cough-variant asthma is a special type of asthma, where the main symptom exhibited by patients is an irritative dry cough, typically quite severe, without other significant clinical discomforts. In contrast, patients with allergic asthma usually exhibit symptoms such as sneezing, nasal congestion, runny nose, itchy eyes, and itchy nose before the onset, triggered by exposure to certain allergens. Cough-variant asthma does not have these preliminary signs, marking a clear difference from allergic asthma.

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Written by Wang Xiang Yu
Pulmonology
53sec home-news-image

Do people with asthma cough?

The asthma commonly referred to is bronchial asthma, which is primarily characterized by recurrent episodes of breathing difficulty. This difficulty in breathing is mainly manifested as chest tightness and shortness of breath. Additionally, asthma is often triggered by upper respiratory tract infections. Therefore, most asthma patients experience coughing and expectoration during acute attacks. There is also a special type of asthma known as cough variant asthma, which, as the name suggests, is primarily characterized by coughing. This type of cough is generally dry with little to no sputum, or it involves a small amount of mucous sputum. The coughing can occur during the day but is generally more pronounced at night.

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Written by Wang Xiang Yu
Pulmonology
1min 11sec home-news-image

Can asthma be cured completely?

We often refer to asthma as bronchial asthma, which, whether it is cough variant asthma, allergic asthma, or caused by other factors, has not yet a cure found to date. It is now generally believed that bronchial asthma can be controlled, which means that as long as patients with bronchial asthma receive standardized treatment in reputable hospitals, most can be controlled and will not suffer from recurrent attacks. So far, there is no cure found, and all advertisements using Traditional Chinese Medicine or ancient secret remedies or any other means claiming that asthma can be cured are false. These are not to be trusted, and many asthma patients often suffer because they take some medications containing oral corticosteroids under these false beliefs. While these might control asthma in the short term, they are detrimental to the long-term management of asthma, and prolonged use of such non-standard corticosteroid treatments can lead to many adverse reactions, such as drug-induced Cushing's syndrome and medication-induced diabetes, among others.