Poorly controlled asthma: is it really asthma?

Asthma is a common disorder, sometimes with nonspecific presenting features, which can lead to misdiagnosis. To obtain a definitive diagnosis of difficult-to-treat asthma, it should be ruled out non-adherence to prescribed therapy, other diagnosis or even psychiatric problems. The authors present two cases in which patients had symptoms that mimic asthma or complicated asthma management: foreign body aspiration mistaken as asthma and difficult-to-control asthma due to tracheal stenosis. Through this article, we recall the importance of anamnesis and differential diagnosis as key steps to the patient’s best approach.