Genetics and the environment are influential factors in developing a disease in the respiratory tract.
Dr. Álvaro Aranda, pulmonologist specializing in internal medicine and lung disease. Photo: Medicine and Public Health Magazine
From next 25 to 28 January, the Congress on Diseases in the respiratory tract at the Convention Center, where Puerto Rican specialist in pediatric pulmonology, Dr. José Rodríguez Santana, and Dr. Juan Carlos Celedón, Colombian pulmonologist and Chief of the Division of Pulmonology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will share the progress of their research related to the incidence of respiratory conditions in the pediatric community of Puerto Rico.
This was made known by Dr. Álvaro Aranda, a pulmonologist specializing in internal medicine and lung disease, in an interview for the Medicine and Public Health Magazine, who explained that “Puerto Rico is probably among the first two countries in all of Latin America or America in incidence of asma. The United States recognizes that Puerto Ricans have a incidence of asma much higher than whites, blacks, and other Hispanics.”
As explained by Dr. Aranda, the high incidences of asma They are related to a predisposition, mainly genetic, but it is also due to environmental factors.
Influence of the weather on the respiratory diseases and asthma
Dr. Aranda explains that temperature changes cause problems in the respiratory tract, since these are exposed to the external environment, specifically the mucosa, which faces the air in breathing. Although, due to environmental contamination, the lungs and endothelium are also affected.
“The environment is already charged by environmental pollution and the problem of pollen, fungus and humidity affect patients much more” the specialist explained and clarified that, if the problem is not treated asma as it should, it makes it possible for people to lose their lung function slowly: “many times patients come to the specialist when they have already lost 40 or 50% of lung function.”
At what age can asthma develop?
Because there are different types of asma, its appearance can be at any age. However, normally the asma appears in young children as a asma more allergic and usually disappears at puberty or adolescence. But, when he appears at age 40, he is a asma more resistant and difficult to handle with current treatments.
Pulmonary hypertension: rare disease with high incidence in Puerto Rico
The pulmonary hypertension It is an orphan disease that, according to Dr. Aranda, “occurs between 5 to 20 people per million worldwide,” however, in Puerto Rico there has been a incidence higher compared to other countries.
The people with the highest risk of developing this disease are idiopathic patients, especially women between the ages of 40 and 50, although it can also occur in patients with collagen-vascular diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, among others.
The specialist also clarified that not giving early management of this disease, with aggressive treatment, can lead the patient to lung disability and later death.
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