Relationship between Diseases of the Upper Airways and Asthma in Children

Overview

The objective of the work was to attempt a definition of the etiology of relapsing upper airway diseases (UA)and to evaluate them from the aspect of the child’s prognosis. The prospective study comprised 156 children withrepeated inflammations of the upper airways without manifestations of asthma and pollinosis where the authorsproceeded according to the outlined objective, and 685 children with bronchial asthma where the authors confirmedthe repeated occurrence of inflammations of the UA - mainly sinusitits - before the assessment of the diagnosis ofbronchial asthma. The age bracket of the patients is 4 - 18 years. In the group of children with repeated inflammationsof the UA were 87 boys and 69 girls, in the group of asthmatic children 392 boys and 293 girls. The results of theinvestigation confirmed the significant part played by atopy, gastrooesophageal reflux (GER) and otorhinolaryngologicalpathology (ENT) in repeated inflammations of the UA. In these children the authors observed also the presenceof bronchial hyperreactivity (BHR) which is the most important risk factor of bronchial asthma.

Key words:
repeated inflammations of the upper airways, atopy, gastrooesophageal reflux, bronchial hyperreactivity,minor airways