Diagnosis of Asthma

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion1

Control of the Environmental Factors leading to acute Asthma Attacks2

Diagnosis, Assessment and Monitoring of Asthma3

Initial Management of Kelley's asthma according to current BTS/SIGN guidelines4

Long Term Management of Kelley's asthma according to current BTS/SIGN guidelines5

Conclusion8

Diagnosis of Asthma

Introduction

One of the inflammatory diseases that is concerned with airways and is considered to be of chronic nature is known as Asthma. At the stage of childhood, the disease is reflected to be of an enduring nature that is supposed to have an influence on more than 6 million children (NHIS, 2005). The programs aimed at controlling Asthma gain importance because by the initiation of such health care programs, a decline in the rate of people suffering from Asthma has been observed. This report is prepared under the light of the national asthma guidelines to show how to immediately assess the asthma along with the initial and long term management of the disease among infants and youngsters as is the case with Kelly by taking help from the Guidelines provided by British Thoracic Society (BTS).

Discussion

An expert commission of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) in coordination with the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute (NHLBI) has taken an initiative to come up with the Expert Panel Report based on the topic of Asthma (NHLBI, August). The guidelines prepared by the NAEPP in affiliation with NHLBI served as a platform to bridge the gap that exists between the current knowledge and practice of the health care professionals. It was been realized by the NAEPP that if the professionals are provided with the current evidences, the resultant will be the valuable clinical practice guidelines. In this, regard a continuous update of the guidelines is being done by the concerned authorities. As far as the British Thoracic Society (BTS) guidelines regarding asthma are concerned, these were produced in the year 1999 by a joint effort of British Thoracic Society (BTS) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN and BTS, 2012). The guidelines are kept under the processs of ammendments according to the requirements put forth by the changing asthma managemnet and conditions.

Kelley, a fifteen year old girl has been diagnosed with the problem of asthma since the time she was an infant. The asthma was not properly controlled at that stage and thus at present she has been presented with an acute attack of asthma. If her problem got controlled at the infancy stage, then the problem might not have become severe.

Control of the Environmental Factors leading to acute Asthma Attacks

A number of allergens exist in the environment and for the successful assessment and management of Asthma among the patient of all ages, it is very essential to identify and reduce the exposures of the patients to such aggravations. In addition, it is also necessary to control the other environmental factors that might bring an increase to the symptoms of Asthma. There are basically five factors that have been identified in the context of guidelines. These factors include the inhalant allergens, occupational allergens, ...