"NON-INVASIVE ASSESSMENT OF ASTHMA DISEASE"

Abstract

"Asthma is a complicated disease involving a series of cascaded immunity response towards a certain type of allergen. FEV1/FVC ratio has been established to correlate with asthma severity. However, due to the reversible nature of the airway obstruction in asthmatic patients, FEV1/FVC ratio can only assess the severity of the airway obstruction during the test. Methacholine stress test is designed to challenge the airways to promote airway obstruction so as to assess if the patient has Asthma.

In this study, a severity index has been proposed based on the patient’s sensivity towards methacholine and reversibility of the airway obstruction using the planar triangle method. This method attempts to refine the assessment of Methacholine stress test by observing the FEV1/FVC ratio at different instance during the test. 54 patients have been recruited for the Methachline stress test. Out of these patients, 1 patient exhibited severe asthma and 21 patients show mild severity using the proposed mathematical method.

A prototype illustrating a web based questionnaire and patient record system have also been developed in this project to aid physician in assessing a patient’s condition and the effectiveness of the patient’s current therapy. The system provides a chart system that projects clarity towards the patient’s clinical results as well as provides a weighted average system for the physician to tailor an index that is suitable for each individual patient."