[Bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine in children under 4 years with recurrent bronchitis].

Objective: To evaluate bronchial hyperresponsiveness in children under 4 years of age with recurrent wheezing bronchitis, and to determine if its presence or absence can predict the subsequent progression to a transient or persistent wheezing bronchitis phenotype.

Population And Methods: A bronchial challenge test was performed with methacholine using a modified tidal volume method, without sedation in a group of patients from 8 to 47 months of age with recurrent wheezing bronchitis and a control group of healthy children. A decrease in oxygen saturation of ≥ 5% or an increase in respiration rate of >50% [PCwheeze (PCw)] was considered a positive response.

[Exhaled nitric oxide in children under 4 years of age with recurrent bronchitis].

Background: The objective of the study was to assess bronchial inflammation in preschool children with recurrent bronchitis by measuring exhaled nitric oxide.

Patients And Methods: The study included patients under 4 years of age with at least 3 episodes of wheezing in the past year (n=63) and a control group (n=30). Exhaled nitric oxide was measured in samples collected offline during spontaneous tidal breathing with a face mask and stored in Mylar balloons.

[Exhaled nitric oxide in children: a noninvasive marker of airway inflammation].

This article is an academic review of the application in children of the measurement of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO). We outline the joint American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society recommendations for online measurement of FENO in both cooperating children and children unable to cooperate, offline measurement with uncontrolled exhalation flow rate, offline measurement with controlled exhalation flow rate using a dynamic flow restrictor, and offline measurement during tidal breathing in children unable to cooperate. This is followed by a review of the normal range of values for single-breath online measurements obtained with a chemiluminescence FENO analyzer (geometric mean, 9.

[Bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine assessed by means of tracheal auscultation of healthy children aged under 4 years].

Objective: To assess the safety of the tracheal auscultation method for measuring bronchial hyperresponsiveness in healthy unsedated children aged less than 4 years and to establish a range of normal bronchial hyperresponsiveness values.

Population And Methods: The study population consisted of healthy children aged between 6 months and 4 years. A methacholine bronchial provocation test was administered to unsedated children, using the tidal volume breathing technique and applying an abbreviated protocol.

[Childhood asthma].

Very frequently we have to deal with children who follow specific treatment to combat their repetitive episodes of breathing difficulty and wheezing. In many cases, they suffer from asthma. Hippocrates defined asthma as "the condition which causes an excessive narrowing of the bronchi after a reaction with a provocative stimulus which usually does not produce any effect".

Inhaled corticosteroids plus long-acting beta2-agonists as a combined therapy in asthma.

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are the mainstay of asthma treatment. Since 1994, when the first trial showed an equivalent effect of doubling the ICS dose or adding salmeterol, it has repeatedly been shown that the combinations of beclomethasone dipropionate and salmeterol, budesonide and formoterol, or fluticasone propionate and salmeterol have at least the same efficacy as doubling the dose of the ICS in adults, though a conclusive trial in asthmatic children is still lacking. The addition of a long-acting beta(2)-agonist (LABA) to ICS appears more efficacious than adding a short-acting beta(2)-agonist or an antileukotriene, even though available data are sparse.