Asthma is a disease that narrows the airways in the lungs. Sudden contraction of smooth muscles that encircle the air passages causes them to become so narrow that little air can reach the lungs. An asthma attack can include a spasm of the larynx, wheezing and breathing difficulty. It can be triggered by an allergy or a respiratory infection. The symptoms of asthma are due to bronchial obstruction caused by swelling of the mucous membrane lining the lung bronchioles and over-secretion of muscus by the glands of the bronchi.
Breathing becomes difficult, following by wheezing and coughing.
The breathing muscles and the constrictor muscles of the bronchioles act irregularly producing wheezy sounds. The patient has a feeling of great pressure in the chest and a sense of suffocation. His symptoms are most marked at night or in the early morning. A child with asthma may be a very distressing sight. For among his symptoms there is often a great deal of fear associated with his couching seizures.