A Clincal Follow-up Study of Asthma from Childhood to Adulthood

Park, Kyung Hwa; Lee, Hyun Hee; Han, Man Young; Jeong, Byung Ju; Kim, Kyu Earn; Lee, Ki Young

Abstract

PURPOSE
Intermittent bronchial obstruction and increased airway responsiveness to inhaled nonspecific stimuli are main features of asthma. We retrospectively studied a group of children with asthma to investigate the contribution of childhood asthma characteristics and degree of bronchial responsiveness in combination with other variables in the prediction of adult level of pulmonary function & bronchial responsiveness.
METHODS
We carried out the retrospective study on 65 adult patients who had been performed methacholine provocation test at Yonsei university children's allergic clinic from March 1994 to July 1997. These cases were diagnosed bronchial asthma on childhood.
RESULTS
1) In this study 65 patients were investigated, 45 subjects(69.3%)(A) were negative on methacholine provocation test, & 20 subjects(30.7%)(B) were positive. 2) Age of onset of asthma, A group was earlier than B group.(1.2 vs. 3.8 year) 3) There was significant relationship between mean PC20-methacholine and % predicted FEV. 4) There was no significant difference between A & B group in the number of allergen & duration included in the immunotherapy.
CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that age of onset, degree of symptoms, % predicted FEV of childhood asthma are relevant to predict the outcome of the adult pulmonary function level, and the childhood degree of bronchial responsiveness are important for the prediction of adult degree of bronchial responsiveness among children with asthma.