is a syndrome that includes several clinical phenotypes that share similar clinical manifestations. It is defined as a chronic inflammatory disease of the respiratory tract, whose pathogenesis involves several cells and mediators of inflammation, conditioned in part by genetic factors and that results in bronchial hyperresponsiveness and a variable airflow obstruction. (1)
The presence of airway inflammation is a common feature. Inflammatory pattern and mediators are responsible for causing disease symptoms and persistent inflammation (1).
- Asthma is a global disease that affect all countries being a public health problem
- There are around 180 000 asthma deaths per year in the world, even if in the last decades a significant reduction of the mortality has happened
- The annual cost per asthmatic patient is averaged to 5 000USD, being higher in severe patients (8% of asthmatics)
- The annual cost of asthma in 2011 in the USA was 56 billion USD
- In European community there are >30 million of asthmatic, it is the most prevalent disease with a cost >20 million € in adult patients (15-64years)
Underdiagnosis of asthma may be ranged between 20% and 73% while overdiagnosis of asthma is around 30-35%, resulting on serious consequences to patients and into healthcare systems. One of the causes for the underdiagnosis of asthma is that in an initial diagnostic assessment no objective tests are used (3) .
REFERENCES:
(1) GEMA, Comité Ejecutivo de la. GEMA 4.4: Guía Española para el Manejo del Asma. Madrid: Luzán 5, 2019. ISBN: 978- 84-17372-51-4.
(2) Asthma costs and social impact. Carlos Nunes, Ana Margarida Pereira and Mário Morais-Almeida. 1, s.l. : Asthma Research and Practice, 2017, Vol. 3.
(3) Underdiagnosis and Overdiagnosis of Asthma. Shawn D. Aaron, Louis Philippe Boulet, Helen K. Reddel, and Andrea S. Gershon. 8, s.l. : American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2018, Vol. 198