Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. These may occur a few times a day or a few times per week. Depending on the person, asthma symptoms may become worse at night or with exercise.Asthma is thought to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Environmental factors include exposure to air pollution and allergens. Other potential triggers include medications such as aspirin and beta blockers. Diagnosis is usually based on the pattern of symptoms, response to therapy over time, and spirometry lung function testing. Asthma is classified according to the frequency of symptoms, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), and peak expiratory flow rate. It may also be classified as atopic or non-atopic, where atopy refers to a predisposition toward developing a type 1 hypersensitivity reaction.There is no known cure for asthma, but can be controlled. Symptoms can be prevented by avoiding triggers, such as allergens and respiratory irritants, and suppressed with the use of inhaled corticosteroids. Long-acting beta agonists (LABA) or antileukotriene agents may be used in addition to inhaled corticosteroids if asthma symptoms remain uncontrolled. Treatment of rapidly worsening symptoms is usually with an inhaled short-acting beta-2 agonist such as salbutamol and corticosteroids taken by mouth.
Other autoinflammatory diseases that do not have clear genetic causes include adult-onset Stills disease, systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Schnitzler syndrome, and chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis. It is likely that these diseases are multifactorial, with genes that make people susceptible to these diseases, but they require an additional environmental factor to trigger the disease. Individual periodic fever syndromes
See also
Kawasaki disease - possible autoinflammatory mechanism
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
List of cutaneous conditions

Further reading
Hobart A. Reimann, Periodic Disease: a probable syndrome including periodic fever, benign paroxysmal peritonitis, cyclic neutropenia and intermittent arthralgia. JAMA, 1948. Hobart A Reimann, Periodic Disease: periodic fever, periodic abdominalgia, cyclic neutropenia, intermittent arthralgia, angioneurotic edema, anaphylactoid purpura and periodic paralysis. JAMA, 1949. Hobart A Reimann, Moadié, J; Semerdjian, S; Sahyoun, PF, Periodic Peritonitis—Heredity & Pathology: report of seventy-two cases. JAMA, 1954. Hobart A Reimann, Periodic fever, an entity: A collection of 52 cases. AmJMedSci, 1962. References
External links

Understanding Autoinflammatory Diseases - US National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases