Asthma---time for a change of name? Commentary

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Abstract
Firstly, the term is used in several different ways; eithergenerally (or generically) to describe any reversible airway obstruction or specifically to imply symptomatic atopic airway inflammation. Surreptitiously, the two have become confused. Also, it can be used to describe a particular episode of airway obstruction (‘an attack of asthma’) or to mean a tendency to develop recurrent episodes, with the associated prognostic implications. In longstanding asthma, there is often an irreversible component, although strictly, this may fall outside any current definition of the disease.