RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Clinical Asthma Syndromes and Important Asthma Mimics
JF Respiratory Care
FD American Association for Respiratory Care
SP 568
OP 582
VO 53
IS 5
A1 Christopher S King
A1 Lisa K Moores
YR 2008
UL http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/53/5/568.abstract
AB Asthma is a heterogeneous disorder with multiple clinical phenotypes. Phenotypes can be grouped into clinical or physiological, trigger-defined, and inflammatory phenotypes. Treatment based on inflammatory phenotyping improves clinical measures of asthma morbidity. Further study of individual asthma phenotypes will improve understanding of their immunologic and pathologic characteristics and improve diagnosis and therapy. Because asthma is a common disorder with nonspecific presenting features, other disorders are often misdiagnosed as asthma. A high index of suspicion for alternative diagnoses must be maintained when evaluating a patient who presents with clinical features suggestive of asthma, particularly if the patient presents with atypical symptoms or fails to respond to therapy.