Usually, Asthma is associated with allergies. The medical term is ‘Bronchial Asthma’.
Apart from allergies, bronchial asthma can also be caused by tobacco smoking, passive smoking, recurrent respiratory tract infection, post TB, and hereditary & genetic causes.
There are also many types of asthma.
Intermittent Asthma, also known as Mild Intermittent Asthma is one type of asthma.
Generally, on the basis of symptoms frequency, we can decide whether this asthma is intermittent or not.
Mild Intermittent Asthma is a type of asthma in which patients can have symptoms fewer than 2 days a week and night flares fewer than 2 nights in a week.
Asthma causes inflammation in the airways. It also causes bronchoconstriction (narrowing of windpipes).
Common respiratory symptoms of mild intermittent asthma are cough, chest tightness, breathlessness, wheezing from the chest, chest heaviness, chest pain, etc.
Any patient with the above chief complaints should visit a Chest Physician or a Pulmonologist.
The pulmonologist will ask for a certain history like allergies, family history, past history of lung infection, etc.
Then he /she will examine your lungs through a stethoscope. If he suspects asthma, he will request a few reports to confirm the diagnosis of asthma.
According to GINA (Global Initiative for Asthma) guidelines, treatment of asthma is based on PFT severity. We can broadly classify asthma as Mild, moderate and severe.
The mainstay of treatment is inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), Inhaled bronchodilators ((LABA and LAMA), oral anti-allergic (montelukast), oral antihistamine (levocetirizine or fexofenadine) and oral bronchodilator (Acebrophylline).
So in summary, mild intermittent Asthma is easily manageable with inhaled medications. You need to visit a Chest physician for PFT and clinical examination. If you ignore this condition or don’t take proper medication, it will end up in chronic persistent asthma or status asthmaticus (asthma Attack).
Dr. Kaushal M Bhavsar pursued his MD in Pulmonology. He is an Assistant Professor in Pulmonary Medicine, GMERS Medical College, Ahmedabad
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