Cardiac Asthma

Overview of cardiac asthma

Sometimes cardiac asthma is mistaken for normal asthma, if these two conditions are not differentiated and incorrect treatment is taken, cardiac asthma will worsen.
Asthma can be the cause of all kinds of heart diseases, that’s why we recommend that people who suffer from asthma and lung problems should take more care of their heart and blood vessels and pay more attention to their heart health.

Often, the patient has no history of asthma and these symptoms are completely new.

Patients who have cardiac asthma have wheezing because water collects in the lungs due to the failure of the heart to pump blood, causing wheezing.

Besides chest X-rays, there are other ways to diagnose heart failure, such as an enlarged heart and liver, swelling of the neck veins, and ankle swelling. In some patients, the diagnosis of heart failure is made when the chest X-ray shows an enlarged heart and there is fluid in the pleural membrane. Of course, sometimes these signs are not present and the diagnosis is more difficult.

Correct diagnosis is very important, because the treatment of cardiac asthma is different from pulmonary asthma.

Diuretics are often prescribed to reduce water that has accumulated in the lungs.

If this treatment method is effective, the wheezing often goes away.

History of cardiac asthma

In 1833, a physician named “James Hope” used the term cardiac asthma for the condition of insufficient blood saturation with oxygen and the resulting feeling of shortness of breath. Although more complete definitions have been provided for this disease since then, it is still difficult to diagnose it quickly and correctly. Cardiac asthma causes shortness of breath and wheezing at night due to congestion of the lungs secondary to heart failure. In respiratory asthma, the symptoms are caused by an inflammatory process and have nothing to do with heart problems. Since heart failure is more common in the elderly, the probability of cardiac asthma in this age group is much higher. In 2011, the American Heart Association published a report based on which the prevalence of heart failure among people over 65 years of age is estimated at 10 cases out of every thousand people, so the prevalence of heart failure is directly related to the age of the patient. A 2007 study reported a 35% prevalence of cardiac asthma in the elderly (compared to a 10% prevalence in the young patient population). Unlike cardiac asthma, asthma is more common in children and young adults. According to the results obtained from a study in 2009, the prevalence of asthma in children is 10% and in adults 8%.