[Bronchial asthma among adults].

Approximately 5800-6200 adult asthma patients have died yearly in 1980-1992. This number has tended to decrease over the years except 1995. In recent 3 years; 1997, 1998 and 1999, it decreased to 5589, 5065 and 5360, respectively. Males were slightly more than females among the death cases. Two-thirds of the patients were 70-80 year old. Death of young male adults in twenties notably increased in past 10 years but it decreased in recent 3 years. One third of the patients showed sudden death type occurring within 1-3 hours after onset of asthma attack. The majority of asthma attacks leading to death actually start while the patient is at home. More than half of the patients were classified into intrinsic or mixed type of asthma and also graded as severe-type asthma. The main causes of the fatal asthma attacks were respiratory infections, fatigue and stress. Fifty-two percent of them were smokers including ex-smokers. Pulmonary emphysema showed relatively high frequency as a complication.