Cardiac asthma
Cardiac asthma is a condition caused by congestive heart failure. Cardiac asthma reduces pumping efficiency of the left side of the heart that leads to the lungs. A person who suffers from this type of disease has difficulties in breathing associated with wheezing and coughing. Some people get this ailment in their work environment, but the asthma can be prevented as long as they are completely protected from any respiratory sensitizers at the work place. The main symptoms for cardiac asthma are:
• increase in rapid and shallow breathing;
• increase in blood pressure and heart rate;
• feeling of apprehension;
• may appear during the sleep or at night after going to bed;
• chest tightness or arching;
It can be detected with special tests like echocardiograms or x-ray of the heart. Cardiac asthma is usually triggered by a major mechanical malfunction of the heart and can be rapidly fatal if it's not treated in a short time. The patients who have cardiac asthma respond well to a treatment made by a combination of bronchodilators, oxygen, morphine and nitrates. Digoxin is one of the medicines best reserved for use with patients with cardiac asthma which has a rapid atrial fibrillation. Beta-blockers are not advised for treatment of cardiac asthma because of their negative effects. Treatment with steroids may be helpful for the pulmonary edema patient in a shorter treatment. It is very important that the treatment is efficient and the patient mustn't be allergic to the treatment and he has to be under continues supervision from his doctor because treatments for this kind of disease are very different from one patient to another. Cardiac asthma may appear at children and also at adults. Asthma is a chronic disease and its treatment requires four components: patient education, environmental control, comprehensive pharmacological therapy, and objective measures to assess severity and monitor course of therapy. The problems that accompany cardiac asthma may not be reversible with medications and they could lead to surgical intervention.
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