title: Clinical asthma syndromes and important asthma mimics.
abstract: Asthma is a heterogeneous disorder with multiple clinical phenotypes. Phenotypes can be grouped into clinical or physiological, trigger-defined, and inflammatory phenotypes. Treatment based on inflammatory phenotyping improves clinical measures of asthma morbidity. Further study of individual asthma phenotypes will improve understanding of their immunologic and pathologic characteristics and improve diagnosis and therapy. Because asthma is a common disorder with nonspecific presenting features, other disorders are often misdiagnosed as asthma. A high index of suspicion for alternative diagnoses must be maintained when evaluating a patient who presents with clinical features suggestive of asthma, particularly if the patient presents with atypical symptoms or fails to respond to therapy.
authors.affiliation: Office for Student Affairs, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4310 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Lisa K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Moores
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000503:physiopathology; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001250:Asthma, Exercise-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology; D004802:Eosinophilia / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007818:Laryngeal Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D008597:Menstrual Cycle; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000378:metabolism; D010641:Phenotype; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis; D013183:Sputum / Q000166:cytology; D014827:Vocal Cords