What is cardiac asthma?

Answer From Rekha Mankad, M.D.

Cardiac asthma is not a form of asthma. It's a type of coughing or wheezing that occurs with left heart failure. Depending on how severe the symptoms are, this wheezing can be a medical emergency.

Heart failure can cause fluid to build up in the lungs, a condition called pulmonary edema. It also can cause fluid buildup in and around the airways. This can cause shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing similar to the symptoms of asthma.

True asthma is a long-term condition caused by inflammation of the airways. The inflammation narrows the airways, causing breathing trouble. True asthma has nothing to do with fluid in the lungs or heart disease.

The distinction is important because treatments for asthma and heart failure are different. Treatments for heart failure can help improve the symptoms of both heart failure and cardiac asthma. Overusing treatments for true asthma, such as rescue inhalers, could be harmful and potentially lead to a worsening of symptoms.

With

Rekha Mankad, M.D.

From Mayo Clinic to your inbox

Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health. Click here for an email preview.

To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.

Jan. 06, 2024 See more Expert Answers

See also

  1. 5 Years on a VAD
  2. Arteriovenous fistula
  3. Atrioventricular canal defect
  4. Automated external defibrillators: Do you need an AED?
  5. Blood tests for heart disease
  6. Transplant advances
  7. Cardiac amyloidosis — Treatment options
  8. Cardiac amyloidosis — What is amyloid and how does it affect the heart
  9. Cardiac catheterization
  10. Cardiac sarcoidosis
  11. Chest X-rays
  12. Coronary angiogram
  13. Coronary artery bypass surgery
  14. Cough
  15. CT scan
  16. Dick's Story
  17. Echocardiogram
  18. Ejection fraction: What does it measure?
  19. Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG)
  20. Heart transplant to treat dilated cardiomyopathy: Elmo's story
  21. Fatigue
  22. Flu shots and heart disease
  23. Heart and Blood Health
  24. Heart arrhythmia
  25. Heart failure
  26. Heart failure and sex: Is it safe?
  27. Heart Rhythm Conditions
  28. Heart transplant
  29. Hemochromatosis
  30. Holiday Heart
  31. Honey: An effective cough remedy?
  32. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs)
  33. MRI
  34. Nausea and vomiting
  35. Organ transplant in highly sensitized patients
  36. Pacemaker
  37. Palliative care
  38. Pseudoaneurysm: What causes it?
  39. Scleroderma
  40. Seeing inside the heart with MRI
  41. Shortness of breath
  42. Stem cells: What they are and what they do
  43. Stress test
  44. Symptom Checker
  45. Tachycardia
  46. The Last Brother's Heart
  47. Triathlete transplant
  48. Ventricular assist device
  49. Video: Heart and circulatory system
  50. MRI
  51. Heart failure action plan
  52. Wheezing