Peak expiratory flow monitoring in asthmatic children.

Objective: To correlate forced expiratory volume in 1 second (VEF(1)) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) with clinical parameters in children with moderate and severe asthma.

Methods: This was a non-concurrent cohort study, carried out at a pediatric pneumology clinic, in Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, between March and October 2002. The study enrolled children aged 5 to 16 years, with persistent asthma, being treated with a minimum of 500 mcg/day beclomethasone, and with symptoms under control for at least 3 months.

Simultaneous treatment of asthma and allergic rhinitis.

Asthma and allergic rhinitis (AR) form a well-recognized comorbidity. This study aims at assessing the efficacy of nasally inhaled beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) in their simultaneous treatment. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 78 allergic rhinitis and asthma patients aged 5-17 years.

[Asthma and allergic rhinitis as symptoms of the same disease: a paradigm under construction].

Objective: To describe current ideas about the relation between upper and lower respiratory tract and to review the epidemiological, immunological, and pathological aspects that support the paradigm of united airways disease.

Sources: Literature review using the Medline, MD Consult, HighWire, Medscape and Lilacs databases. We used allergic rhinitis and asthma as keywords, and searched articles published in the past 20 years.