Facts About Asthma Attack And Vocal Cord Dysfunction

Do you have asthma or vocal cord dysfunction? Differentiate and identify what you are suffering with, to take the correct treatment.

Asthma is a chronic disease which makes the airway passages sensitive and irritant.

Asthma cannot be cured but the symptoms of asthma attack can be managed and controlled to lead a normal life.

There are number of diseases which imitate asthma symptoms and that results in misdiagnosis.

One such illness is the vocal cord dysfunction and the symptoms of the disease can imitate asthma attack

Vocal cord dysfunction is a condition of throat closure and choking sensation that can strike at any age and can cause severe attacks. Vocal cord dysfunction is caused by reflux disease or post nasal drainage. The symptoms can seem same as that of asthma symptoms and may occur alone or along with asthma attack.

Normally, the vocal cord opens to let the air pass through and reach lungs when people breathe or inhale. When the disease occurs, the vocal cord locks together and tightens the airways producing the difficulty in breathing.

Asthma Symptoms:

• Whistling sound when you breathe
• Coughing
• Tightness in the chest
• Shortness of breathe
• Narrowing of airway passages

If you have vocal cord dysfunction and don’t have asthma, the symptoms include:

Vocal Cord Dysfunction Symptoms:

• You often have hoarse voice and generally able to speak during the attack
• You may experience sudden attack with a fast recovery
• You may feel difficulty breathing in than breathing out
• You may have dry cough

It is easy how these respiratory conditions are misdiagnosed. There are other diseases which imitate the asthma symptoms the way vocal cord dysfunction does, these are generally rarer.

Sometimes, if you have true asthma as well, difficulty in breathing can be caused by abnormal movements of the voice box during breathing. This can imitate a severe asthma attack so closely that correct diagnosis is difficult.

Unlike asthma, people with vocal cord dysfunction do not get better with corticosteroids or bronchodilators.

The test to diagnose vocal cord dysfunction includes pulmonary function studies. Unlike asthma, patients with this disease have a normal expiratory limb. In asthma, inspiratory limb is relatively normal but the expiratory limb is abnormal.

The diagnosis of vocal cord should be done carefully and vocal cord should be inspected by ear, nose and throat specialist. If you are diagnosed with vocal cord dysfunction, treatment for it should begin.

If you are suffering with vocal cord dysfunction only, medications for asthma attack should be stopped. Vocal cord dysfunction may complicate true asthma attack in small number of patients.

If both asthma attack and vocal cord dysfunction are diagnosed, asthma attack medications may be continued, but are often reduced.

If both are present, treatment is given only for asthma attack and not for vocal cord dysfunction. Therefore it gets worse and you may think that asthma is present.

Hence, through laryngoscopy, vocal cord dysfunction should be diagnosed clearly and should not be misunderstood as asthma attack and treatment should be given for that disease.