Late onset asthma in the elderly and its relationship with atopy.

Although asthma has always been considered as a disease of the early years, its presence is found both in old and young people. Asthma is often underestimated in the elderly because it can be confused with other diseases such as heart failure and, frequently, with COPD. In most cases asthmatic patients develop their disease before 45 years of age, but sometimes the first episode of asthma occurs after 60 years of age. This asthma phenotype is called Late Onset Asthma (LOA). LOA is often underestimated but, in recent years, some studies have shown that LOA is not entirely uncommon among the elderly; this clinical form is often caused by allergic sensitizations. The cause depends on the overall improvement of health in the most economically developed nations and also on the parallel increase in allergic diseases in these countries.