Clinical Characteristics of Asthma

Week 4 DQ 1
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Week 4 DQ 1
Asthma is a severe airway illness that affects both children and adults. Danvers et al. (2019) indicate that it affects more than 300 million individuals globally, with children being the most affected. The disease presents diverse clinical characteristics, including recurrent wheezing as the primary one. Other signs and symptoms reported by Saglani and Menzie-Gow (2019) comprise chest tightness, breathlessness, and coughing. The authors highlight that misdiagnosis is commonplace because this subjective data can represent other lung-related conditions. As a result, using appropriate and thorough diagnostic processes is fundamental for accurate diagnosis.
Although no gold standard for diagnosing asthma exists, guidelines agree that healthcare providers must complement the clinical data with objective ones since the former are inadequate. This consensus has led to the use of the spirometry approach as the leading recognized tool internationally in the diagnosis process (Danvers et al., 2019). The method tests lung function by determining the amount of air one can inhale and the rate of exhaling (S...