What is asthma? An update on the mechanisms.

Asthma is currently best described by the presence of characteristic symptoms and by variable airways narrowing and airways hyperresponsiveness to a variety of inhaled bronchoconstricting stimuli. For more than 100 years, asthma has also been known to be an inflammatory disease of the airways. More recently, the importance of airways inflammation in the pathogenesis of asthma, ranging in severity from mild to severe, or in transient asthma …