Health Buzz: You Might Not Actually Have Asthma.
About one-third of people in a small study were found not to have asthma after a previous diagnosis.
If you've been diagnosed with asthma, you may want to ask your doctor for a reevaluation.
Researchers couldn't confirm asthma in approximately one-third of adults participating in a small Canadian study who were previously diagnosed with the chronic condition. The findings were published Tuesday in JAMA.
The researchers say possible explanations for the diagnosis conundrum could be due to "spontaneous remission or misdiagnosis," according to a news release. Asthma is typically a persistent illness but it's unclear how many people go into spontaneous remission or have experienced initial misdiagnosis.
The study included 613 people previously diagnosed with asthma. Researchers tested these adults with a variety of lung function tests, including spirometry and bronchial challenge assessments, and monitored their symptoms. Across four visits with participants, researchers were able to reduce daily asthma medications for people who used them. Out of the 613 people who finished the years-long study, 203, or 33 percent, were found to not have asthma. Upon further study one year later, 181 people, or 30 percent, again didn't have asthma.
"We were able to get these patients completely off asthma medications, and they did well in follow up over the next year despite remaining off medications," Dr. Shawn Aaron, lead study author from the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, told Reuters.
So what's the harm in misdiagnosis?
"The most important potential harm of misdiagnosis of asthma is not treating the patient's actual disease," Dr. Helen Hollingsworth of Boston University co-wrote in a editorial published with the study, Reuters notes.
U.S. asthma cases rise each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
