Symptoms of bronchial asthma cough

Written by Yuan Qing
Pulmonology
Updated on January 22, 2025
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Bronchial asthma, commonly referred to as asthma, often results in symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing in patients. However, these symptoms do not always appear simultaneously in an individual. It's possible for a single symptom to serve as the initial manifestation of bronchial asthma. For example, the condition may present solely as wheezing, chest tightness, or, notably, as coughing, where it is the only symptom. The characteristics of asthma-related coughing primarily include a certain rhythmic pattern, typically worsening during early morning or late night, and it can easily lead to coughing up blood. Additionally, the coughing may begin and end abruptly and can be triggered by exposure to cold air or strange smells, followed by spontaneous improvement after a period. These are distinctive features of bronchial asthma coughing.

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Written by Wang Xiang Yu
Pulmonology
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Is it okay to take Chinese medicine for bronchial asthma?

Bronchial asthma can be treated with traditional Chinese medicine, but it is definitely not feasible to treat bronchial asthma only with Chinese medicine without Western medicine. Modern medicine still primarily uses Western medicine, which is the mainstream. Traditional Chinese medicine serves as an auxiliary treatment. Bronchial asthma is a recurrent disease that needs standardized treatment to be controlled. Currently, many unscrupulous businesses are exploiting the banner of traditional Chinese medicine or some ancestral secret formulas to provide non-standard treatments to patients with bronchial asthma, which may contain corticosteroids. Long-term oral intake of their herbal medicines might control bronchial asthma in the short term, but such long-term treatments are definitely non-standard and will lead to future difficulties in controlling the asthma. Therefore, patients with bronchial asthma must receive standardized Western medical treatment and can use traditional Chinese medicine as an auxiliary treatment, but it must be provided by a formal hospital.

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Written by Wang Li Bing
Intensive Care Medicine Department
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How to treat bronchial asthma?

After the onset of bronchial asthma, it is necessary to carry out active treatment. In clinical practice, the following categories of bronchodilator drugs are mainly used: The first is adrenergic receptor agonists, such as salbutamol and terbutaline; the second is anticholinergic drugs, mainly tiotropium bromide; the third category is xanthine drugs, which can include aminophylline or doxophylline. Additionally, glucocorticoids can be used for pharmacological treatment. If the patient still has recurrent attacks after systemic treatment, hospitalization is recommended for further management.

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Written by Zeng Xiang Bo
Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
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What are the complications of bronchial asthma?

The complications of bronchial asthma are divided into acute and chronic complications. Acute complications, which occur during a severe asthma attack, mainly include pneumothorax, mediastinal emphysema, severe hypoxia, respiratory failure, leading to severe arrhythmias, electrolyte disturbances, and in severe cases, coma and death. Chronic complications are mainly due to chronic changes in bronchial asthma leading to airway remodeling, chronic airway inflammation, and chronic narrowing. The complications at this stage mainly include chronic respiratory failure and pulmonary heart disease.

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Written by Yuan Qing
Pulmonology
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The cause of airflow limitation in bronchial asthma.

Bronchial asthma airflow limitation is a respiratory physiological feature of our bronchial asthma, and its limitation is mainly related to the pathophysiological mechanism of asthma. Asthma is a chronic airway inflammation involving multiple cells caused by various reasons. When inflammation occurs, the mucosa will become edematous, and the smooth muscle outside the airway will also spasm and contract. Therefore, the airflow cannot smoothly enter and exit the bronchi, leading to the manifestation of airflow limitation in the bronchi. Thus, in the treatment of asthma, we need to use some bronchodilator drugs, as well as some anti-inflammatory drugs, so as to comprehensively control the patient's symptoms.

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Written by Han Shun Li
Pulmonology
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Does bronchial asthma spread?

In some families or among relatives, multiple people may have bronchial asthma. If multiple members suffer from bronchial asthma, is it because they have infected each other? Actually, that's not the case. Bronchial asthma is not contagious. The reason why multiple family members or relatives have bronchial asthma is due to genetics. The closer the familial ties of asthma patients, the higher the incidence of the disease. The more severe the patient's condition, the higher the incidence among their relatives. Therefore, asthma is related to genetics but is not contagious.