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 Diagnosing
asthma can at times be quite difficult as the symptoms associated with it are
not specific or unique. As a matter of fact, the symptoms manifested resemble
other types of diseases such as emphysema, bronchitis, and some lower
respiratory infections.
It will take some time and patience for anyone to make a conclusive diagnosis of
asthma. To facilitate the process, you may need to make some effort to keep a
record of all the symptoms manifested by you or your loved ones prior to a
diagnosis by your doctors. During the diagnosis, you can provide your records to
your your doctor to help him save some time on the diagnosis.
Your doctor will be especially concerned about any coughing or wheezing
episodes. If you find yourself short of breath in certain situations or at
specific times such as during particular seasons of the year, you should make a
note of it. Likewise, make a note of your reactions to irritants such as strong
scents, smoke, or other chemical fumes? Ask yourself the following questions but
do remember to keep a record on them - Do the reactions come on suddenly? And
how often? Do you experience colds that seem to settle in the chest area? Do
they seem to linger too long? What medicines do you take to deal with them and
how do you react to the medicines?
Additionally, you will also need to make some research on your family's medical
history. The following questions will help you in your gathering of information
on your family's medical background - Does anyone close to you have trouble with
allergies such as hay fever? Or more clearly, has anyone else been diagnosed
with asthma?
Your advice on the above will help the doctor to narrow his focus on what may be
the cause. As with any disease, the sooner a diagnosis is made the sooner
treatment can begin.
Beside recommending certain blood tests and chest x-rays, your doctor will more
than likely use a device called a spirometer to check how well your lungs are
functioning. With this test, you are required to breathe into the tube after
taking a deep breath. This test will measure how much air you exhale and how
fast you are able to do it. If your airways are now inflamed, irritated and
narrowed or if the muscles around the airways have tightened the air amount and
speed will more likely to be lower than average.
Other tests will be carried during the diagnosis process. These include the
allergy tests to find out what brings about an immune reaction from your body,
exercise tests to monitor your breathing response, and electocardiograms to
eliminate any possibility of heart disease.
In diagnosing asthma, your doctor will normally categorize asthma into one of
the four basic levels of severity. These include a mild form that manifests
itself once or twice a week, at night - once or twice a month, and in between
there are no obvious symptoms and your breathing is normal. Next is a mild
persistent level that is not more than perhaps once a day and your physical
activity is becoming affected when the attacks come on. This is followed by
moderate persistent asthma that is manifested by several symptoms every day and
an overall increase in night time symptoms. The extreme on the scale is the
severe persistent asthma which lives up to it's description with an ongoing set
of symptoms that persist throughout the day and night and your activity is most
likely to be very limited.
The effectiveness of any treatment for asthma is very much dependent on the
accuracy of the diagnosis. Hence, in diagnosing asthma, sufficient time must be
given to your doctor for carrying out necessary tests on you or your loved ones
in order to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.
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