Asthma in Adults

Asthma, or acute reversible obstructive airways disease (ROAD), is a major respiratory disease affecting approximately eight million people in the United States. The disease is characterized by attacks of wheezing dyspnea with coughing and sputum production. Although most adult patients who have the disease demonstrate either bronchospastic episodes during childhood or will have repeated episodes of respiratory infection, upper and lower or both during early years, some patients do begin only in later life, that is, adult onset asthma. All of these patients usually have no symptoms or signs during interval periods, but with proper stimuli will demonstrate airways obstruction