Question

Charles is a 17-year-old teenager previously diagnosed with intermittent reversible airway obstruction (infrequent symptoms, usually occurring twice weekly at most) who now complains to his family physician of experiencing worsening shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing, especially in the previous 2 weeks, almost always requiring the use of his albuterol inhaler. He described having itchy, watery eyes, congestion, and drainage when around cats and also in the spring, summer, and fall.

He also tells his physician that over the past 12 months he has gone to the emergency department twice because of shortness of breath, each time resulting in a course of treatment with oral prednisone.

QUESTIONS

6. Go to the CDC website, and find the Massachusetts current prevalence number and percentage for Charles’s condition.

7. What happens in the early phase of Charles’s condition? Please write in your own words without taking the content from the PPT.

8. What happens in the late phase of Charles’s condition? Write in your own words.

9. How is this disease different from other lung diseases like COPD?

10. What is Status Asthmaticus and what happens if a person experiences this?

Answer 1