Asthma runs the spectrum from being a nuisance to being a terrifying experience which, if it continues unabated to status asthmaticus, can lead to death. The disease, many times, is a difficult puzzle for the medical practitioner to solve. If an asthmatic patient must undergo anesthesia, another spectrum of attitudes may be manifested by those of us who deliver the anesthesia care. They may ran...

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com responsiveness to a variety of stimuli [1]. The airways become congested with thick, white mucus. The mucus can form into plugs, occluding airways and resulting in Atelectasis. Mucosal edema can also occur. The combined problems of mucus, bronchoconstriction and edema lead to alveolar hyperinflation. When a severe exacerbation doesn’t respond to con...

common condition, and from a stirvey of the illnesses of the adult population of England and Wales (1944-7) by Stocks (1949) it has been estimated that asthma occurs in one in every 110 of the adult population, or, more correctly, in 904 per 100,000 of the adult population. The frequency of death from status asthmaticus in this common condition is, however, uncertain, and opinions differ. Witts...

Serum theophylline concentration was measured in children both during treatment of status asthmaticus with intravenous aminophylline, and as outpatients while they were taking oral theophylline compounds for long-term management of asthma. The clinical value of the measurements was assessed. Measurement using high-pressure liquid chromatography is simple and requires only a small volume of bloo...

case on November 7, 1958, with a six-years' history of asthma and gradually increasing breathlessness on exertion. The family history revealed asthma in his sister and his daughter. Over the past year he had suffered from midsternal pain on exertion, relieved by rest, nocturia, and swelling of the ankles. For two days before admission his asthma became increasingly severe, having been precipita...

Status asthmaticus is a life-threatening form of reactive airway disease, refractory to initial control with ordinary medical measures, sometimes requiring mechanical ventilatory assistance. In this report, we describe a patient whose bronchospasm could not be controlled with conventional measures, with severe respiratory acidosis (PaCO2 consistently > 100 mm Hg), who was successfully supported...

We read with interest our case report in the December issue of Chest (1982; 82:800-01), and reaffirmed in our own minds what a unique case this indeed was. However, since some discussion of the uniqueness ofthe case seemed in order, and, in fact, was apparently inadvertently omitted from the case report, we wouldlike to offer the following: Pulmonary infections caused by atypical mycobacteria h...