Diagnostic and informative values of clinical and phenotypical signs for early detection of bronchial asthma

Abstract

Regarding poor detection of bronchial asthma (BA) in outpatient facilities diagnostic values of main clinical and phenotypical BA signs were investigated to improve early diagnosis of the disease. To verify the diagnosis we elaborated a clinic variant of BA, assessed medical documents and questioned 96 patients. The correct diagnosis was found to be reached usually in some years after the appearance of the first BA symptoms (in average 12.49 ± 7.32 yrs) in spite of typical onset of the disease in all the cases: dry cough attacks in 82.2 %, asthma attacks in 6.3 %, dyspnoea in 46.9 %, and chest tightness while contacting with an allergen or an unspecific irritant (dynamic physical exercise, stress, cold air) in 7.3 % of the patients. Detailing of symptoms was performed and diagnostic value of every sign was determined. Discriminative coefficients were calculated for reliably high influencing signs; their informative values and probability of BA detection were defined. Subjective and objective causes of late BA diagnosis were retrospectively analyzed based on medical documentation and questioning 92 doctors of outpatient facilities.