Dear friends
Recently while I was browsing the internet, I just got stumbled upon a piece of article in Western Journal of Medicine. My search was for comparative clinical picture of bronchial asthma and cardiac asthma. The erudite description of the clinical picture of two cases of dyspnea is superb. I should say it is so much illuminating. But important aspect of this article is the period during which article was written. It is more than 65 years old. The marvelous way they dealt with the cases is so impressive. None of the present day gadgets were there at that time. Even for those severe cases, only ECG and fluoroscopic screening were mentioned in addition to blood smear for differential count. It seems they were dependent mainly on their clinical assessment of the cases. And the treatment aspect also quite revealing. For such severe cases they used only digitalis and mercurial diuretics, iodide cough syrup and injection aminophylline. And mind you both cases showed remarkable improvement and were discharged. And just compare the way we treat these cases now. For the doctors who are accustomed to the present day management with the plethora of tests, ICU monitoring and assisted ventilations this paper must be shocking.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl … 46/?page=1

UA Mohammed