Inflammation An Its Effects in Pathology

Running head: INFLAMMATION AND ITS EFFECTS IN PATHOLOGY
INFLAMMATION AND ITS EFFECTS IN PATHOLOGY
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INFLAMMATION AND ITS EFFECTS IN PATHOLOGY1
Introduction:
With the global burden of chronic disease, asthma has emerged as the most frequent
respiratory disease in Australian, impacting approximately 10% of the population (King et al.
2018). According to the Australian bureau statistics, approximately 2.7 million Australian
experienced asthma in 2017-2018, accounting for 11.8% of the total population. In last ten
years, the occurrence of asthma in Australia has maximized by 9.9%. According to 2017–18 self-
reported survey data, approximately one in four aged 15 and 441 deaths encountered in 2017
(Www.aihw.gov.au. 2020). In Australia, asthma is responsible for approximately 35% of the
global burden of the disease where the direct cost annually for treating asthma $770.4 million
(Www.aihw.gov.au. 2020). Jones et al. (2016), suggested that while asthma is considered as the
respiratory disease of lungs, the recent evidence of asthma research represented that it is a
disease of the systematic airway that involves the whole respiratory tract. The common risk
factors of asthma include smoker, exhaust fume, having a family history of asthma (Aldakheel et
al. 2016). However, atopic asthma is also frequently occurring asthma which coexists with other
frequently occurring atopic diseases such as allergic rhinitis. Chronic inflammation is related to
airway hyper-responsiveness due to the environment triggers leads to persistent incidents of
wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness. The respiratory infection also plays a fundamental role
in the development of asthma as the respiratory infection has the potential to trigger rapid
inflammation. This paper aims to provide a detailed explanation of the pathophysiology of
asthma, Immunology of asthma and Immunotherapy for asthma in the following paragraphs.
Discussion:
Pathophysiology of asthma:

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Asthma has emerged as a respiratory disease associated with the T helper immune
resulted in repeated episodes of wheezing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath and elevated
vital signs. Dharmage, Perret and Custovic (2019), suggested that while asthma incidence, as
well as prevalence, are higher amongst children in Australia, the mortality rate of asthma are
higher in adults. The adult asthma is more common amongst women whereas childhood asthma
is highly prevalent amongst the boys. For children, asthma impairs the airway development and
minimizes the ability of lungs to attain its maximum function. This deficit in lung function may
persist until adulthood and may contribute to other respiratory diseases such as pneumonia or
bronchitis. Childhood asthma is accounting for the consecutive absence of school days, high
academic performance, difficulties in communicating through language or forming words. On
the other hand, adult asthma exhibit an acceleration of declined lungs function and permanent
airway obstructions. The common contributing factors of asthma can be allergic and non-allergic
(Owens et al. 2017). While house dust mites, animal dander, pollens, bacterial and viral infection
are the allergic triggers of asthma, exposure to tobacco smoke, cold air, fume and exercise are
considered as non-allergic triggers (McCallum et al. 2017). In this context, considering the
pathophysiology of asthma, due to allergic or non-allergic trigger inflammation of airway of
lungs observed which resulted in the obstruction of the airway. Silver et al. (2018), suggested
that bacterial infection or viral infection amongst patients damages damage mucociliary
clearance. Teo et al. (2017), suggested that the damaged mucociliary clearance by bacterial
infection increases the mucous production in the lungs and induce lower airway inflammation
amongst the patients. Consequently, the muscles around the airway of lungs tightened and
airway lining swelled frequently. Due to rapid inflammation, the airway of lungs narrowed down
and accumulate secreted mucous (Kumar, Herbert and Foster, 2016). The mucous usually

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encompasses necrotic airway epithelial cells, dead leucocytes, mucin and inorganic salts.
Therefore, rapid mucous production and frequent inflammatory response resulted in wheezing,
shortness of breath, elevated respiratory rate, elevated heart rate and low oxygen saturation. The
frequent mucous secretion resulted in hinder the ability to breath as it interferes with the ability
of lungs to inhale adequate oxygen for systematic circulation of the body (Kumar, Herbert and
Foster, 2016). The inadequate oxygen-containing blood circulation frequently increases oxygen
demand of the body and heart is required to pump harder than usual capacity to pump blood
circulation. Therefore, asthma patients usually experience high respiratory rate and a high pulse
rate.
The common diagnoses for identifying asthma include estimation of narrowing bronchial
tube with the assistance of spirometer. Spirometer assesses the narrowing of bronchial tubes by
evaluating the amount of air exhaled after deep breathing and frequency of breathing.
Additionally, peak flow is an instrument used for measuring how hard an individual can breathe
out. The lower than standard peak flow reading is considered as dysfunctional lungs which will
worsen asthma of the patient (Kumar, Herbert and Foster, 2016). Other common diagnoses are
allergy test, sputum eosinophil imaging tests and nitric oxide test. On the other hand, a range of
testing procedures has also existed for testing cold-induced or exercise-induced asthma. The
common treatment of the asthma is salbutamol which acts as a bronchodilator for opening the
narrowed airway and facilitating the inhalation process. Salbutamol is usually provided through
inhaler as the bioavailability of oral administration is significantly low (Owens et al. 2017).
Long-acting beta-agonists as well as Leukotriene modifiers are also provided to the patients
suffering from low to moderate asthma for reducing the symptoms of asthma. The proper self-