How the Severity of Asthma Is Diagnosed

In order to diagnose the severity of asthma, your doctor needs to know how often you're experiencing asthmatic symptoms. In this video, Keren Bakal, MD, discusses common symptoms and how they're used to diagnose the severity of asthma.

Transcript

00:00

In order to diagnose the severity of asthma, you really want to find out how often the person is experiencing the symptoms.

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Asthma symptoms can be different for different people, but generally speaking, most people will experience wheezing-- which is a whistling sound when you exhale--

00:20

chest tightness, or feeling pressure in the chest. A lot of people experience shortness of breath when their asthma flares up, and some might even

00:28

experience a cough. Some may experience all of these symptoms, some of these symptoms. It really varies, depending on the person.

00:35

In order to diagnose the severity of asthma, you really want to find out how often the person is experiencing the symptoms.

00:42

Is it once a week? Is it once a month? And also, are they experiencing these symptoms at night?

00:49

That actually gives you a lot of information. So if somebody is having nighttime symptoms of asthma every night, then they're going to be a severe asthmatic.

00:57

You also want to find out how often have they had flare-ups of this condition. Did they have four flare-ups this year?

01:03

Did they need medication for the flare-up? Did they go to the emergency room? So those are some of the ways you could determine

01:11

the severity of asthma. A flare-up, generally speaking, is a person

01:18

will experience those symptoms of asthma, so shortness of breath, chest tightness or wheezing. They may use their inhaler for those symptoms,

01:26

but they continue occurring. When that occurs, then we sometimes have to give medication short-term--

01:35

like an oral steroid-- to help calm down that flare-up. And if it's from an infection, we may give an antibiotic.