Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways , which play a role several cells, in particular the mast, the eosinophils the T lymphocytes. In subjects predisposed this inflammation causes recurrent episodes of wheezing breath, difficulty breathing, feeling of chest tightness and coughing.

These symptoms are usually associated with widespread but variable broncoostruzione reversible after therapy with bronchodilators or spontaneously. The inflammation also causes an increase in airway response to many stimuli more or less specific.

Often, however, that in common parlance the word “asthma” is used as a synonym for “wheezing or shortness of breath,” even if the home completely different from the true bronchial asthma. For example in the old definition of acute heart failure is precisely spoke of “cardiac asthma” that has nothing to do with inflammation of the bronchi.

Therapy

The asthmatic disease usually requires continued treatment for Life.
At present excellent results are obtained by taking the patient regularly drugs in aerosol spray or powder form of inhaled into account the limits of normal state of inflammation of the airways and thus avoid the stress of ‘bronchial hypersensitivity “.

It is therefore critical to proper treatment in the continuous recruitment of anti.

The essential medicines for the treatment of asthma remain the anti cortisonici recruited by inhalation.
These are drugs that act “local” (or limited to the airways) that provided the doses were very effective and very manageable.
This type of cortisone, the dose planned, no problems with the cortisone treatment for systemic (tablets or injections) and can be administered to children too long.
Some of the most cortisonici popular for the treatment of asthma are inhaled beclomethasone, budesonide, the flunisolide, the fluticasone.

In the event of a crisis, however, the individual may resort to another class of medications called bronchodilators for short-term action, as the name suggests, dilate the bronchial pathways where an episode of asthma has made the clogged. It should be stressed however that these drugs are not the cure of asthmatic disease (which is entrusted to the ongoing anti): drugs are very important (and can be made even if the patient is already taking the anti-inflammatory) but acts only overcoming the crisis because it does not intervene on the mechanisms that underlie the asthmatic disease.