Features of asthma in elderly patients
Emelyanov A.V.

North-Western State Medical University named after I.I Mechnikov, St. Petersburg

The prevalence of bronchial asthma (BA) in elderly and senile patients ranges from 1.8 to 14.5%. In most cases, disease manifestation is observed in childhood. First appearance of symptoms in the second half of life is observed in few patients (4%), 
BA in elderly patients has important features associated with involutive changes of respiratory system and morphological features of the disease. Elderly patients have poorer quality of life, are hospitalized and die more often than young people. BA diagnostic difficulties are caused by multimorbidity and decrease of perception of symptoms. So it is important to assess pulmonary function with test for reversibility of obstruction. BA underdiagnosis is one of the reasons for its inadequate treatment. BA management includes important parts - patients teaching, assessment of comorbidity, drug interactions and side effects. The paper presents reasons for BA underdiagnosis, most common causes of respiratory symptoms in elderly patients, diagnosis and treatment of BA in elderly patients. Special attention is paid to combined preparations, increasing the efficiency of treatment of severe forms.

Key words: bronchial asthma, elderly and senile patients, diagnosis and treatment of patients.

For citation: Emelyanov A.V. Features of asthma in elderly patients // RMJ. 2016. № 16. P. 1102–1107.