Asthma: What we learn from each other's problems? The present state of asthma in Japan and Japanese Pediatric Guidelines for the Treatment and Management of Asthma (JPGTMA)

摘要

Asthma in children is defined as "A disease involving recurrent symptoms of airway narrowing, including episode of dyspnea, wheezing, and cough. Usually, the patient's medical history is positive for airway hyperresponsiveness associated with chronic allergic inflammation from environmental allergens".Diagnosis of asthma is not difficult But, It is difficult in infant because asthma infants can not complain of dyspnea by themselves, and symptoms can be observed objectively. We use "Asthograph" to measure bronchial hyperresponsiveness for the diagnosis of infantile asthma. Sixty percents of childhood asthmatics develop their symptoms before the age 3years. As the saying goes, not all wheezes is asthma, however almost all that wheezes is asthma. Asthma in infancy can be confused with a variety of airway diseases, all of which produce similar signs, symptoms, and physiological changes. The names of diagnosis are wheezy bronchitis, pseudoasthma, asthmatoid bronchitis, spastic bronchitis, etc. But considering the definition of asthma, asthma is asthma.