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0:00
I'm Dr. William Busse.
Amanda McIntyre and I are at
the University of
Wisconsin School of
Medicine and Public Health
in Madison, Wisconsin.
We have put together
this talk on asthma.
I will be making
the presentation.
0:17
As an introduction,
the first thing to
know about asthma
is that it is a common
respiratory disease.
It affects up to 10% of
the population worldwide,
and there are over 3 million
patients with asthma.
For most patients with asthma,
the disease begins
in early life,
usually less than
6 years of age.
This means that, for
most individuals,
asthma is a lifetime disease.
As a consequence of
being a lifetime disease
and the severity of the disease,
asthma can have a very
large health care burden
both for patients
and for society.
However, what is very
important is the understanding
that effective treatments
are available.
They're not only effective,
but they are also safe
and they can give long-lasting
benefits in the control of asthma.
1:09
The first thing to do is
to try to define asthma.
Asthma is described as a
heterogeneous disease.
That means it is more
than one disease.
It's usually characterized
by chronic airway inflammation,
is also defined by a history
of respiratory symptoms:
wheeze, shortness of breath,
chest tightness, and cough.
These are nondescript
but they vary over time
and they vary in intensity,
and together a very
important component is,
that they lead to expiratory
airflow limitation.
The definition of asthma
is very non-specific,
but is characterized by
having variable symptoms of
cough, wheezing, and
shortness of breath.
There are variabilities in
the intensity of the disease
but an underlying
characteristic feature
is airway inflammation.
