Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lowe, Lesley A

Titel

Pulmonary Function in Early Life: Genetic Predisposition, Environmental Exposure and the Development of Asthma

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2005

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Introduction: Our understanding of asthma development and lung physiology in pre-school children is limited due to the lack of suitable measurement techniques applicable in very young children. Aims: (1) To implement standardised methods for assessing lung function in young pre-school children (2) To identify risk factors for reduced pulmonary function (3) To establish the effect of allergen exposure and avoidance on lung function in early life. Methods: As part of a large prospective birth cohort study, lung function was assessed in children at 3 years of age by measurement of specific airway resistance (sRaw) using whole body plethysmography (n=604). When children were aged 5 years, sRaw measurement was repeated (n=848), and in addition airway reactivity was assessed using Eucapnic Voluntary Hyperventilation challenge with dry air (n=674), post-bronchodilator lung function (400 salbutamol; n=857) and spirometry (n=799). Conclusions: sRaw at age 3 years is strongly associated with wheeze. Sensitised children currently exposed to sensitising allergen have diminished lung function. Sensitisation in the absence of exposure or exposure in not-allergic children has no effect on lung function. Environmental control is associated with better lung function in early life. Poor lung function at age 3 years predicts the subsequent persistence of symptoms by age 5 years. At age 5 years, sRaw is a better predictor of current respiratory symptoms than FEVI. sRaw should be used more widely in assessing asthma in children. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)