Question: What is taken by mouth to treat rapidly worsening symptoms?
Answer: an inhaled short-acting beta-2 agonist such as salbutamol and corticosteroids

Question: What happens in very severe cases of asthma?
Answer: intravenous corticosteroids, magnesium sulfate, and hospitalization may be required

Question: What are the characteristics of asthma?
Answer: recurrent episodes of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing

Question: When are symptoms of asthma normally worse?
Answer: at night and in the early morning or in response to exercise or cold air

Question: What is produced in the lungs by coughing?
Answer: Sputum

Question: Is asthma worst during the day or at night time?
Answer: worse at night

Question: Does everyone have horrible episodes of asthma?
Answer: Some people with asthma rarely experience symptoms, u

Question: Do other health concerns happen less frequently or more frequently with asthma?
Answer: more frequently

Question: What are three of the other health conditions that occur more frequently with asthma?
Answer: gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), rhinosinusitis, and obstructive sleep apnea

Question: What other type of disorders are frequent in asthma sufferers?
Answer: Psychological disorders

Question: What are those with asthma that is poorly controll more susceptable to? 
Answer: radiocontrast reactions

Question: What are some of the enviromental factors that have been linked to asthma?
Answer: allergens, air pollution, and other environmental chemicals

Question: What two things are associated with a greater risk of asthma-like symptoms?
Answer: Smoking during pregnancy and after delivery

Question: What can cause symptoms and asthma serverity to change?
Answer: Low air quality from factors such as traffic pollution or high ozone levels

Question: Exposure to what compounds can also trigger asthma?
Answer: indoor volatile organic compounds

Question: What hypothesis tries to explain the increased amount of asthma world wide?
Answer: The hygiene hypothesis

Question: How does the hygiene hypothesis explain the increase in asthma?
Answer: a direct and unintended result of reduced exposure, during childhood, to non-pathogenic bacteria and viruses

Question: What has caused the reduced exposure in childhood?
Answer: increased cleanliness and decreased family size in modern societies

Question: What could prevent asthma?
Answer: Exposure to bacterial endotoxin in early childhood

Question: What is some of the evidence backing the hygiene hypothesis?
Answer: lower rates of asthma on farms and in households with pets.

Question: What else is a risk factor for asthma?
Answer: Family history

Question: If one identical twin has asthma, what are the odds of the other twin having asthma?
Answer: approximately 25%

Question: How many genes were associated with asthma by the end of 2005?
Answer: 25 genes

Question: How many genes were associated with asthma in 2006?
Answer: over 100 genes

Question: What else are these genes closely related to?
Answer: the immune system or modulating inflammation

Question: What is asthma the result of?
Answer: chronic inflammation of the conducting zone of the airways

Question: What two airways are most effected by asthma?
Answer: the bronchi and bronchioles

Question: In what ways do airways change?
Answer: an increase in eosinophils and thickening of the lamina reticularis

Question: What other cell types are involced with the changing of airways?
Answer: T lymphocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils

Question: What other components of the immune systems are included?
Answer: cytokines, chemokines, histamine, and leukotrienes among others

Question: Is there a universal definition of astham?
Answer: there is not one universal agreed upon definition

Question: What main components play a role in asthma?
Answer: many cells and cellular elements play a role

Question: What is the inflamation a result of?
Answer: airway hyper-responsiveness

Question: What does hyper-responsiveness of the airways cause?
Answer: episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing

Question: What are two ways to reverse an asthma attack?
Answer: spontaneously or with treatment

Question: Is there a test to determine asthma in an individual?
Answer: There is currently no precise test

Question: What is diagnosis based on typically?
Answer: pattern of symptoms and response to therapy over time

Question: When should you suspect asthma?
Answer: if there is a history of: recurrent wheezing, coughing or difficulty breathing

Question: What is used to confirm the diagnosis of asthma?
Answer: Spirometry

Question: What age is too young to use spirometry to determine asthma?
Answer: children under the age of six

Question: What is recommended to help in the diagnosis of asthma?
Answer: Spirometry

Question: Why is spirometry so commonly used to diagnose asthma?
Answer: It is the single best test for asthma

Question: What helps support the evidence of asthma?
Answer: If the FEV1 measured by this technique improves more than 12% following administration of a bronchodilator

Question: What substance can skew the results of an asthma test?
Answer: caffeine

Question: What test can tell the difference between asthma and COPD?
Answer: Single-breath diffusing capacity

Question: What is the rate that is used in most of the evidence?
Answer: ≥20%

Question: What is more variable than spirometry but not recommended?
Answer: . Testing peak expiratory flow

Question: How is asthma clinically classified?
Answer: according to the frequency of symptoms, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), and peak expiratory flow rate

Question: How else is asthma classified?
Answer: as atopic (extrinsic) or non-atopic (intrinsic)

Question: When asthma is caused by allergens that is called what? 
Answer: atopic

Question: What  is asthma usually classified based on?
Answer: severity

Question: What is a important goal of asthma research?
Answer: Finding ways to identify subgroups that respond well to different types of treatments

Question: What kind of condition is asthma?
Answer: a chronic obstructive condition

Question: What are examples of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?
Answer: bronchiectasis, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema

Question: Is the airway obstuction reversable in asthma?
Answer: asthma is usually reversible

Question: What part of the airway does emphysema affect?
Answer: alveoli

Question: What part of the airway does asthma affect?
Answer: the bronchi

Question: Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction is common in what profession?
Answer: professional athletes

Question: What professions has the highest rate of Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction?
Answer: cyclists (up to 45%), swimmers, and cross-country skiers

Question: What conditions are more likely to cause Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction?
Answer: when it is dry and cold

Question: What does not appear to help athletic performance that do not have asthma?
Answer: Inhaled beta2-agonists

Question: Asthma that is the result of or made worse by workplace exposure is reported as what?
Answer: occupational disease

Question: What percent of asthma cases in adults are work-related?
Answer: It is estimated that 5–25%

Question: What are some of the most common agents?
Answer: isocyanates, grain and wood dust, colophony, soldering flux, latex, animals, and aldehydes

Question: What professions normally have the highest risk of problems?
Answer: those who spray paint, bakers and those who process food, nurses, chemical workers, those who work with animals, welders, hairdressers and timber workers

Question: What is a condition that can cause symptoms of astham in children?
Answer: allergic rhinitis and sinusitis

Question: What are some other causes of airway obstruction?
Answer: foreign body aspiration, tracheal stenosis or laryngotracheomalacia, vascular rings, enlarged lymph nodes or neck masses