[Death from or in asthma ? (author's transl)].

23 deaths of patients with severe asthmatic dyspnea were analyzed. There was no correlation between clinical presentation and cause of death certified by post-mortem examination. The cause of death was found outside the airways in 14 patients. Of diagnostic-therapeutic implications are the relative frequency of spontaneous pneumothorax (5) and pulmonary embolism (3). Six times another cause of death was discovered (like tumor invasion, arterial thrombosis, hemorrhagic pancreatitis, myocardial infarction). Acute asthmatic death was prone to happen in the middle-aged asthmatic with less than two years of bronchial asthma. Here like in 5 patients with chronic obstructive airways disease lack of awareness of the seriousness of the patients' state, sometimes cessation of cortisone long-term therapy, seldom abuse of bronchodilator-aerosols seems to be important for the lethal outcome.