As one of the authors of the Australian Asthma Handbook who better than Professor Adam Jaffe to make things a little clearer for us.
It can be hard enough to agree with a universal definition of what asthma actually is. All too often patients present to the emergency department with a diagnosis of ‘so-called’ asthma only for it to turn out to be something very different. There is power in a name. It also leads to presumption and bias on the part of the clinician and the parent. In a PubMed search one group found 122 papers and 60 different definitions of what it is. Even parents and doctors can’t even agree on what a wheeze is!
This talk was recorded live at DFTB18 in Melbourne, Australia. With the theme of ‘Science and Story‘ we pushed our speakers to step out of their comfort zones and consider why we do what we do. Caring for children is not just about acquiring the scientific knowhow but also about taking a look beyond a diagnosis or clinical conundrum at the patient and their families.
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Selected References
Bush A, Pavord ID. We can’t diagnose asthma until< insert arbitrary age>. Archives of disease in childhood. 2018 Aug 1;103(8):729-31.
Van Wonderen KE, Van Der Mark LB, Mohrs J, Bindels PJ, Van Aalderen WM, Ter Riet G. Different definitions in childhood asthma: how dependable is the dependent variable?. European Respiratory Journal. 2010 Jul 1;36(1):48-56.
Pavord ID, Beasley R, Agusti A, Anderson GP, Bel E, Brusselle G, Cullinan P, Custovic A, Ducharme FM, Fahy JV, Frey U. After asthma: redefining airways diseases. The Lancet. 2018 Jan 27;391(10118):350-400.
Cane RS, Ranganathan SC, McKenzie SA. What do parents of wheezy children understand by “wheeze”?. Archives of disease in childhood. 2000 Apr 1;82(4):327-32.
