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MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Asthma is a lung disease that inflames and narrows your airways. Normally, as you inhale, air moves freely through your trachea, or windpipe, then through large tubes, called bronchi, smaller tubes, called the bronchioles, and finally into tiny sacs, called alveoli. Small blood vessels, called capillaries, surround your alveoli. Oxygen from the air you breathe passes into your capillaries. Then carbon dioxide from your body passes out of your capillaries into your alveoli, so that your lungs can get rid of it when you exhale. Your bronchioles expand when the air is warm, moist, and free of irritants and allergy-causing substances, called allergens. When air is cold or dry, or contains irritants or allergens, your bronchials contract. If you have asthma, your airways are frequently inflamed and swollen. Certain substances can cause your inflamed airways to overreact even more, resulting in an asthma attack. Triggers of asthma attacks are slightly different for everyone, but usually include outdoor irritants and allergens such as pollen, smoke, pollution, and cold weather. Indoor irritants and allergens such as mold, pet dander, dust mites, and cockroach droppings. Food allergens such as fish, shellfish, eggs, peanuts, and soy. And conditions such as respiratory infections, stress, strong emotions, and exercise. The symptoms of an asthma attack include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and tightness in your chest. During an asthma attack, also known as a bronchospasm, the muscles around your airways tighten, and the airway wall becomes more swollen. Your airways also produce thick mucus that narrows them even more, making it hard for you to breathe. If you have asthma, your doctor may prescribe medications to reduce inflammation in your airways, constriction of the muscles surrounding your airways, or mucus secretion in your airways. During an asthma attack, you may need to use a short-acting rescue medication, called a bronchodilator. This medication causes your airway muscles to relax quickly, and provides symptom relief within minutes. Since there is no cure for asthma, the goal is to prevent you from having asthma attacks by using long-acting, anti-inflammatory control medications. If you take them every day, they will reduce the inflammation of your airways, making them less sensitive to triggers of asthma attacks.
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Robert F. Linton, Jr.
Linton & Hirshman
Cleveland, OH
"Medical illustrations are essential during trial for any medical malpractice case. The people at MLA have the uncanny ability of creating medical illustrations that simplify the most complex of medical concepts and human anatomy to a lay audience. The exhibits of MLA allow experts to easily describe complex concepts and human anatomy in a manner that could
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David Cutt
Brayton Purcell
Salt Lake City, UT
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I am confident that the detail and overall appearance of the medical
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Noel Turner, III
Burts, Turner, Rhodes & Thompson
Spartanburg, SC
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
trials and for use in the courtroom. We do not provide legal or medical
advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.
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