Clinical Features

• Typical features: The following features are usually intermittent and can occur either sporadically or in response to an asthma trigger.

  • Persistent, dry cough that worsens at night, with exercise, or on exposure to triggers/irritants (e.g., cold air, allergens, smoke)

  • End-expiratory wheezes

  • Dyspnea (shortness of breath)

  • Chest tightness

  • Prolonged expiratory phase on auscultation

  • Hyperresonance to lung percussion

• Features of common comorbid conditions (e.g., atopic conditions like allergic rhinitis, or eczema)

• Acute asthma exacerbation is covered in detail separately.

Characteristic examination findings may not be present between episodes of asthma exacerbation!

• Adult-onset asthma: an uncommon phenotype in which patients present with symptoms for the first time in adulthood; more likely to be nonallergic and involves a poor response to standard treatment

• Cough variant asthma: a form of asthma in which the predominant symptom is chronic dry cough, without other characteristic symptoms of asthma, e.g., wheeze, congestion, dyspnea (see also “Cough”)

• Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction: covered separately in its own article