“What is the difference between chronic bronchitis and asthma?”
My child is 8-years-old, and before we switched pediatricians, she was diagnosed with chronic bronchitis. She would get bronchitis at least 4 times a year, and nearly every illness would lead to it. But now that we switched, her doctor says that this isn't chronic bronchitis and that it's really asthma. What is the difference between the two?
2 Answers
One of the causes of asthma is neutrophilic rather than eosinophilic. At this age asthma is more commonly eosinophilic, allergy related, and the chronic bronchitis tends to be bacterial (neutrophilic). Asthma is essentially reversible airway obstruction. Chronic bronchitis tend to be more productive cough than wheeze.
Asthma symptoms are recurrent in nature compared to chronic bronchitis where symptoms are present most of the time. Cough in bronchitis is usually moist with sputum production.
