title: Advances in the diagnosis and management of asthma in older adults.
abstract: Global estimates on aging predict an increased burden of asthma in the older population. Consequently, its recognition, diagnosis, and management in clinical practice require optimization. This review aims to provide an update for clinicians, highlighting advances in the understanding of the aging process and immunosenescence together with their applicability to asthma from a diagnostic and therapeutic perspective. Aging impacts airway responses and immune function, and influences efficacy of emerging phenotype-specific therapies when applied to the elderly patient. Differentiating eosinophilic and neutrophilic disease accounts for atopic illness and distinguishes long-standing from late-onset asthma. Therapeutic challenges in drug delivery, treatment adherence, and side-effect profiles persist in the older patient, while novel recording devices developed to aid detection of an adequate inhalation evaluate treatment effectiveness and compliance more accurately than previously attainable. Anticytokine therapies improve control of brittle asthma, while bronchial thermoplasty is an option in refractory cases. Multidimensional intervention strategies prove best in the management of asthma in the older adult, which remains a condition that is not rare but rarely diagnosed in this patient population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Navan, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Mazen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Alawi
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Eccles Street, Dublin 7, Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Tidi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, St James's Hospital, James's Street, Dublin 8, Republic of Ireland. Electronic address: schotirmall@rcsi.ie.
authors.forename: Sanjay H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chotirmall
mesh_terms: D000280:Administration, Inhalation; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology; D000403:Airway Resistance / Q000187:drug effects; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D001993:Bronchodilator Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016207:Cytokines / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004804:Eosinophils; D006633:Histamine Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D006969:Hypersensitivity, Immediate / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D055118:Medication Adherence; D009504:Neutrophils; D010349:Patient Compliance; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control; D013147:Spirometry; D013806:Theophylline / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents; D001993:Bronchodilator Agents; D016207:Cytokines; D006633:Histamine Antagonists; D013806:Theophylline
keywords: Asthma; Diagnosis; Elderly; Older adult; Treatment