Peak expiratory flow rate in atopic dermatitis

Park, Seok Won; Cho, Hee Suk; Choi, Won Kyu; Kim, Hwang Min; Lim, Baek Keun; Kim, Jong Soo

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: There is a common progression known as the allergic march from atopic dermatitis to allergic asthma. There are many risk factors affecting allergic march such as expanded exposure to multi-allergens, family history of atopy and other environmental factors etc. In this study, we tried to check PEFR in atopic dermatitis children before development of asthma and to determine whether the PEFR can be a predicting factor of asthma.
METHODS
Nineteen atopic dermatitis children(group A), 21 atopic dermatitis children with asthma(group B) and 25 control children were enrolled in this study. We checked the PEFR in each subject and calculated the % predicted value. We compared the value of PEFR in each group.
RESULTS
Males were predominant in all study groups and the mean ages of the subjects were 5.9 years in group A, 6.8 years in group B, and 8.7 years in control group. The % predicted values of PEFR were 86.57+/-7.32 in group A, 88.16+/-10.33 in group B, and 100.68+/-17.56 in control group. There was a significant difference of PEFR between group A and control group. Additionally, the PEFR in house dust mite sensitive group was lower than that of house dust mite allergen insensitive group among atopic dermatitis group.
CONCLUSION
The lower value of PEFR in atopic dermatitis group suggests that there is some degree of pulmonary obstruction, even if bronchial asthma does not occur. Therefore, the PEFR of atopic dermatitis can be a predicting factor for the development of asthma.