Childhood Asthma: A Look At Some Clinical And Immunological Aspects

Abstract

This is a prospective study done over a period of six months to evaluate some clinical and immunological aspects of childhood asthma. 104 asthmatic children and a control group of 40 children between 2 and 10 years were looked at. 75% of the patients were below 5 years of age. No sex ratio difference was noticed below 5 years of age but there were twice as many girls as boys above this age. 63.5% of all the asthmatic children had their disease starting before 2 years of age. 97.1% of the patients had their attacks during cold wet season and these started at night. Expiratory rhonchi was the commonest clinical sign found. 8.6% of the patients had active eczema and 31.7% gave history suggestive of infantile eczema in the past. There was history of asthma in a first degree relative in 45 (43.3%) patientse77{74%) patients had their first supplementary feed of artificial milk formulae introduced below the age.of three months. There was no significant difference in parasite infestation rate between the asthmatic children and a control group of non-asthmatic children. 54% of the patients had eosinophilia of more than 400 cells/dl in their peripheral blood compared to none in the control group, and this had no relationship with the parasitic infestation. The asthmatics had significantly more positive skin reaction to house-dust mites of Dermatophagoides species comp~red to the non-asthmatics; multiple skin reactions were common.

No significant differences were found in immunoglobulin IgA, IgG and IgM concentrations between the asthmatics and the control group. However the IgG and IgM levels in the control group were higher than has been found in caucasian children in the Western World.