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Asthma Diagnosis
What Is The
Most Suitable Asthma Diagnosis You Should Have ?
Asthma
diagnosis is
needed for people who suffer from asthma. The accurate and early asthma
diagnosis will help you and your doctor to treat the asthma and prevent
further damages of your health.
There are several ways to do asthma
diagnosis,
Medical
History of Asthma
Tracing the history of
allergy and
eczema
in your family root can help you in getting your asthma history.
Children whose parents or relatives got asthma have bigger chance to
suffer from asthma too.
The history of your asthma will include :
-
Certain time when you (or your
parents) detected the first time you got breathing problems,
rhinitis, swollen and itchy eyes (allergic conjunctivitis), eczema,
and any other
asthma
symptoms.
-
Any histories of chronic coughs that
came along with flu, frequent flu, pharingitis (inflammation in the
back of the throat), seasonal diseases that happened during season
or climate changes, breathing problems during exercise, or frequent
sleepless nights with asthma symptoms.
-
Frequencies of your school or office
leave because of asthma or allergy attack, frequencies of ER visits
and hospital stays.
-
The history of life environment
changes.
-
Your present home and working
environments.
-
Histories of asthma or allergy from
your parents and other family members.
-
Factors that
trigger and
induce your
asthma or worsen the symptoms.
-
Types of asthma treatment you have got
and the responses.
Physical Examination
Your doctor should do a physical
examination, such as examining your lungs using stethoscope and
examining your nose. When examining your chest, the doctor will find
something abnormal in your breathing sound, only when you are having
asthma symptoms. However, it does not mean that all people with
breathing sound always have asthma!
Breathing Test
This is the most important test for asthma
diagnosis, as breathing test will identify your breathing quality and
how efficient your lungs functioning. By measuring quantity of inhaled
and exhaled air in every breath you take, the doctor will detect whether
or not you have airways narrower. Actually breathing test is very simple
and easy-to-do test, however an asthma patient could be exhausted after
doing this test, as you will need extra energy to inhale and exhale deep
breaths.
Two Methods of Breathing Test :
Spirometry
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Spirometry is a machine to measure your
vital capacity
and forced expiratory volume
(FEV). Vital capacity is quantity of air your lungs are able to absorb
in full condition. FEV is the volume of air that are forced to come out
of lungs in a second. This method will measure how long and how strong
you can blow the air out of your lungs.
Procedure of spirometry test
:
Empty your lungs, then inhale slowly and deeply until
your lung is full with air, then blow the air fast, as strong as
you can. |
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Usually, the first test result is not too good,
especially if this is your first time test. The doctor will ask you to
do it secondly, maximum three times.
If the first set of test indicates an
abnormal breathing, the doctor will ask you to take medication, and then
repeat the test after the narrower airways get opened. If your breathing
gets well (increasing more than 15%) after the medication, it means you
do have an asthma symptoms.
Peak Flow Meter
Unlike
spirometry, peak flow meter is a more simple hand held device to measure how
fast you exhale the air from your lungs. The highest (peak) flow
would be the measured value. Peak flow meter is commonly used by
asthma patient as the equipment is inexpensive, easy to use and
portable.
How it works ?
-
Peak flow meter measure the volume and
air flow level that can flow through your airways. If your airways
are narrowing because of inflammation, the air would have difficulty
to flow through your airways. And that would change the peak flow
measurement value.
-
For kids under 5 years old, this test
is quite difficult to be performed, as you would need extra effort
and good cooperation from the kid. However this is one of the most
reliable methods of asthma diagnosis.
How to use peak flow meter ?
-
To measure the peak flow, you must
inhale slowly and deeply until your lung is full with air, then blow
the air fast (until your lung is empty), as strong as you can to the
mouthpiece of peak flow meter.
-
The force of the air coming out of
your lungs causes the marker to move along the numbered scale.
-
Note the number.
-
Repeat the test two more times, and
note the numbers also.
-
Take the highest (not average) number
of all test results.
The peak flow measurement will help you
and your doctor to determine your asthma level. Get your peak flow meter
with many choices at my online 1st Asthma
Store!
X-Ray Tests
-
X-Ray test for chest is conducted if
there is a chance of breathing problems other than asthma.
-
X-Ray test for sinus is conducted when
your doctor suspect you of having sinusitis. This test can also
detect polyp.
Challenge Test
When you have no symptoms at all
between two episodes of asthma, lung tests or
allergy testing
might not help your doctor to make an accurate asthma diagnosis. This is
the time your doctor will recommend a challenge test. Challenge test is
mainly for adult, not for kids. However if you have a severe asthma or
risk of
anaphylaxis,
it will be dangerous to take this challenge test. That is why challenge
test MUST be performed in the hospital in case of severe and delayed
reaction.
The challenge test includes:
Methacholine challenge test
To perform this test, you would be asked to inhale a mist (produced
by nebulizer) containing different concentration of methacholine. The
purpose of methacholine challenge test is to determine how responsive or
how irritable your airways are, and the severity of your asthma. You
will also be asked to do a spirometry test before and after methacholine
test.
Exercise challenge test
Spirometry test need to be done
before, during and after your exercise challenge test. Exercise such as
treadmill or static bike must be done in the hospital or laboratory. If
your peak flow decreasing more than 20%, then the doctor can identify
that the trigger of your asthma is
excess
exercise.
What if you have done all the tests, but still could not identify the
cause of your asthma?
Then there are possibilities that you
are having one of the following problems, whose symptoms are similar to
asthma symptoms,
Chronic bronchitis
Chronic bronchitis and asthma often appear at the same time, which
make it more difficult to be identified. Uncured chronic bronchitis
could trigger asthma, while asthma without good treatment could become
chronic bronchitis.
Cardiac asthma
Cardiac asthma is a difficult breathing condition caused by heart
disease. Cardiac asthma often cause difficult breathing attack during
night sleep or after losing a lot of energy. Because of difficulty oh
inhale as well as exhale, you will lose a lot of air in your lung. The
cardiac asthma attack can last for several minutes or several hours. And
after an attack episode, you will feel very exhausted.
Asthma caused by hysteria
Hysterical condition can also be mis-identified as asthma.
Therefore, detailed history of your asthma should help the doctor to
determine the accurate asthma diagnosis.
Cancer
Cancer in chest could cause the similar symptoms to asthma. Pressure
of the cancer can cause difficult breathing.
As asthma is often caused by allergy,
you can also do asthma diagnosis by having some
allergy testing,
to find which allergen induced your asthma.
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More Asthma important articles to read :
What
is Asthma?
Getting
to know more deeply about asthma. What is really happened to your lungs
when you got asthma?
What
Causes Asthma?
Finding out 2 major
causes of asthma so that you can prevent it or decide the best medication.
Asthma Trigger
Getting to know different triggers of
asthma.
Asthma Inducer
Get to know the inducer of asthma and how
to reduce the risks.
Asthma
Symptoms
Learning your asthma symptoms is important to prevent more severe asthma
attack.
Asthma Attack
What to do during an asthma attack, whether you are a patient or helping
a patient?
Asthma Action Plan
Learn the importance of writing your own asthma action plan as a part of
your asthma treatment.
Asthma Medication
Get to know many kinds and common brands of asthma medication, from
anti-inflammatory drugs, quick reliever, to inhaler and nebulizer.
Asthma Natural Cure
As naturopathy becomes first choice of people nowadays, learn many
natural methods for asthma cure, to avoid the use of clinical medication
and antibiotics.
Asthma Management
Instead of being controlled by asthma, you can choose to control the
disease by implementing asthma management into your daily life.
Anaphylaxis
It's important to learn about the most dangerous asthma attack that can
cause death!
About Me
Get to know my family history of asthma and why I build this asthma
website.
Asthma News
Updated
news around the world about asthma.
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