Expert: Marc Rubin, RPh Asthma Educator - 4/15/2008

Question
I have been having trouble with my breathing for about 5 months. What are the symptoms of acute asthma? How do I know if I have it? Is it possible to have difficulty off and on without an inhaler with acute asthma?

Answer
Hi Courtney,

First, a definition of asthma:
It is a long-term illness with 3 airway changes: 1)tightening of the muscles around the airways (bronchospasm), 2) increased mucous production, and 3) swollen airways.

Symptoms of acute asthma are: shortness of breath, wheezing, cough, chest tightness, and night-time cough. In children, it may only appear as a cough. Wheezing (a whistling sound) that occurs as you breath out. The tightness is like someone giving you a bear-hug.You may only have one of the symptoms at one time, or possible more (tightness, wheezing and shortness of breath.

Symptoms may occur intermittently, as when you are exposed to triggers: cats, dogs, horses, smoke, perfume, chemical irritants, viruses, molds and pollens (that is a lot, but hardly all), etc. When you get evaluated, the level of severity is determined about how you have been doing in the recent past.  To determine the diagnosis, the doctor would get a full history, and do spirometry...a breathing test. If the spirometry shows reversible airway disfunction, the next test would be skin testing to help determine what it is that you react to.

If your doctor feels that you may indeed have asthma, it is best to have the testing done by an allergist/immunologist. Even if it proves not to be due to allergies, they can still properly assess what is going on, and steer you in the right direction.

Hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Marc