John Affriol

Anatomy and Physiology

Dr. Servido

25 May 2010

“Asthma”

Asthma is caused by inflammation in the airways. When an

asthma attack occurs, the muscles surrounding the airways become

tight and the lining of the air passages swell. This reduces the

amount of air that can pass by, and can lead to wheezing sounds.

The anatomical location in the lungs is the bronchial tubes.

The causes of asthma are unknown. The airways become

inflamed from various triggers. Asthma can be extremely protean.

Sometimes asthma is genetic and other times it is not. The times

it is not genetic there is no known cause to it. Other factors

like immunology and environment factors contribute to the causes

of asthma too.

Treating asthma involves both preventing symptoms and

treating an asthma attack in progress. Long term and short tern

can be taken. The short term is quick treatment. These include,

short-acting beta agonists, Ipratropium, and oral and intravenous

corticosteroids. If you take the long-term route this is going to

be most preventive route. The preventive options include, Inhaled

corticosteroids, Leukotriene modifiers, theophylline, long-acting

beta agonists, combination inhalers. When you have this disease

your lung capacity decreases so you have less air. The best test
for lung capacity is the Spirometry. It measures how much and how

quickly you can move air out of your lungs.