{"title":"Practical approaches to the diagnosis of asthma in school-age children.","authors":"Pooja Devani, David K H Lo, Erol A Gaillard","doi":"10.1080/17476348.2022.2126355","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Asthma is a chronic airways disease characterized by episodes of wheeze, chest tightness, and evidence of reversible airflow obstruction. Symptoms are frequently triggered by exercise, exposure to aeroallergens, and respiratory viruses. It is the commonest non-communicable respiratory condition in children, affecting over 5.5 million children in the European Union alone. Both over- and under- diagnosis of asthma are common for several reasons.</p><p><strong>Areas covered: </strong>The diagnosis is frequently based on parental or patient reported non-specific symptoms alone. All major asthma guidelines now recommend the use of objective tests, including spirometry, bronchodilator reversibility testing, fraction of exhaled nitric oxide measurements and challenge testing to confirm the diagnosis. Recently, the European Respiratory Society published the first evidence-based international guidelines for diagnosing asthma in school-age children using objective measures. Major barriers to implementation in primary care and less well-resourced healthcare settings are access to relevant objective tests for children and quality assurance to obtain reliable results.</p><p><strong>Expert opinion: </strong>We highlight the importance of diagnosing asthma in school-age children using objective tests and outline a practical approach for the use of widely available tests. We also review challenges and barriers to implementation of objective testing in children managed outside specialist settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":12103,"journal":{"name":"Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17476348.2022.2126355","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/9/22 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"RESPIRATORY SYSTEM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Introduction: Asthma is a chronic airways disease characterized by episodes of wheeze, chest tightness, and evidence of reversible airflow obstruction. Symptoms are frequently triggered by exercise, exposure to aeroallergens, and respiratory viruses. It is the commonest non-communicable respiratory condition in children, affecting over 5.5 million children in the European Union alone. Both over- and under- diagnosis of asthma are common for several reasons.
Areas covered: The diagnosis is frequently based on parental or patient reported non-specific symptoms alone. All major asthma guidelines now recommend the use of objective tests, including spirometry, bronchodilator reversibility testing, fraction of exhaled nitric oxide measurements and challenge testing to confirm the diagnosis. Recently, the European Respiratory Society published the first evidence-based international guidelines for diagnosing asthma in school-age children using objective measures. Major barriers to implementation in primary care and less well-resourced healthcare settings are access to relevant objective tests for children and quality assurance to obtain reliable results.
Expert opinion: We highlight the importance of diagnosing asthma in school-age children using objective tests and outline a practical approach for the use of widely available tests. We also review challenges and barriers to implementation of objective testing in children managed outside specialist settings.
期刊介绍:
Coverage will include the following key areas:
- Prospects for new and emerging therapeutics
- Epidemiology of disease
- Preventive strategies
- All aspects of COPD, from patient self-management to systemic effects of the disease and comorbidities
- Improved diagnostic methods, including imaging techniques, biomarkers and physiological tests.
- Advances in the treatment of respiratory infections and drug resistance issues
- Occupational and environmental factors
- Progress in smoking intervention and cessation methods
- Disease and treatment issues for defined populations, such as children and the elderly
- Respiratory intensive and critical care
- Updates on the status and advances of specific disease areas, including asthma, HIV/AIDS-related disease, cystic fibrosis, COPD and sleep-disordered breathing morbidity