580-d-6. Pediatric Atopic, Immunologic, Infectious Disease, and Integumentary Conditions and Management Plans

Pediatric Asthma
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Pediatric Asthma
Pediatric or childhood asthma is a severe chronic illness in children and infants. In most cases, it is difficult to diagnose. According to Hooper et al. (2016), it mainly appears as coughing, wheezing, tiredness, reduced energy, chest pains, and rapid and difficult breathing.
Pathophysiology: inflammation of airways, which ultimately decreases airflow causing various symptoms (Calamelli et al., 2018). Chemokines and cytokines mainly cause airway inflammation. Airway inflammation is accompanied by increased production of mucus, hyperresponsiveness of airway, and airway edema.
Epidemiology: Asthma first occurred in the 1980s. Yilmaz & Yuksel (2016) explain that in 2007, about 9% of children in the United States had asthma. The burden of pediatric asthma in the United States is alarming. However, the children below four years represent a smaller percentage of the aggregate asthma population.
Physical Exam Findings: According to Hooper et al. (2016), children with asthma experience difficulties in breathing that hinders exercise or play, fatigue that is mainly caused by poor sleep, bronchitis or delayed recovery after a respiratory illness, wheezing or coughing that worsens when the child gets flu, insomnia caused by wheezing, coughing and breath shortness.
Differential Diagnoses and Rationale: Infants and children will mainly experience allergic sinusitis and rhinitis, dysfunction of...