Distinguish between bronchial asthma and cardiac asthma

The article was professionally consulted by Doctor Tran Thi Diem Trang - Respiratory Internal Medicine Doctor - Department of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital.

Cardiac asthma is not bronchial asthma; if not differentiated, misdirected treatment will cause serious consequences for the patient's health. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between bronchial asthma and cardiac asthma in order to have the correct treatment orientation.

In fact, we can distinguish bronchial asthma and cardiac asthma through some key features such as:
Pathogenicity:
Cardiac asthma is a disease with a pathogenic mechanism on the background of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension pressure, cardiomyopathy, coronary heart disease. As for bronchial asthma, it is a disease with a history of chronic, recurrent dyspnea with periodicity and risk of flare-ups and recurrences when exposed to causative allergens. Recognizing signs:
People with cardiac asthma will have signs of sudden shortness of breath, often occurring at night, shortness of breath fast and shallow. Meanwhile, bronchial asthma has signs of sudden shortness of breath but slow breathing, hissing creates a feeling of suffocation in the patient's chest. In addition, cardiac asthma also has manifestations such as dry cough, cough with sputum, pink foam. Bronchial asthma coughs up little, sticky, white sputum, if asthma is a superinfection, there will be purulent or pink mucus. Patients with cardiac asthma have obvious signs of heart failure clinically, rapidly increasing blood pressure, while bronchial asthma patients have normal blood pressure. Patients with cardiac asthma when having an asthma attack will have signs of sweating, cyanosis, rapid pulse, abnormally high blood pressure, difficult to control. When auscultating the patient's lungs, there are many moist rales at the base, along with other signs of heart failure. For bronchial asthma, the patient will sweat or not, not cyan during an asthma attack, blood pressure is still normal or may increase slightly. Paraclinical examination:
When the patient has a subclinical examination such as auscultation of the lungs, there will be many moist rales at the bottom for patients with cardiac asthma, and if the lungs have rales and rales, it is a sign of asthma. manage. X-ray of patients with cardiac asthma can show patients with 2 butterfly-shaped hilar infiltrates, redistribution of pulmonary circulation, and an enlarged heart. While patients with bronchial asthma will have a normal X-ray picture. Age of disease:
Heart disease is common in the elderly, with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, people with bronchial asthma are more likely to occur in young people.

In elderly people with heart failure, the heart muscle's ability to contract and eject blood gradually weakens, leading to stagnation in the pulmonary circulation. This is the main cause of heart attack. Therefore, for the elderly, when there are signs of cough, wheezing, shortness of breath gradually increasing combined with heart failure, it is necessary to immediately think of heart asthma and be treated as soon as possible. Treatment method: To treat asthma or bronchial asthma, the patient needs to be correctly identified.
For the treatment of cardiac asthma, the basic principle is to improve the pumping ability of the heart to release stagnant blood in the lungs. If the heart asthma is caused by the valve vim, or the congenital diseases have a shunt between the heart chambers, then surgery, percutaneous intervention is the treatment method that should be considered. For bronchial asthma, for effective treatment, the best way is to prevent recurrence with preventive treatment, in addition to timely treatment of acute asthma attacks.

Early screening for asthma is very important and necessary for anyone, especially for those with suspected symptoms such as:
Having recurrent episodes of wheezing or wheezing Coughing frequently, especially at night or early in the morning, causing awakening Cough or wheezing after physical activity Shortness of breath that persists during a certain season of the year Cough, wheezing, or shortness of breath after exposure to allergens respiratory pathogens (house dust, mold...) or irritants (paints, oils, perfumes...) Ever had a cold leading to pneumonia or persisted for more than 10 days Have been diagnosed with asthma but unclear.

Currently, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital has an Asthma Screening Package to help screen and detect the disease early to promptly control and treat the disease and perform clinical examination, take medical history, measure function respiratory function, ENT examination, bronchial asthma screening.
Vinmec Times City's team of highly qualified and experienced doctors; full range of professional means to diagnose, determine the cause of bronchial asthma and stage it before treatment; quick examination time, thorough consultation, easy compliance with treatment management, helping patients feel secure in examination and treatment.