Pre-school wheezing: from phenotypes to natural evolution

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the clinical and immunological characteristics of different phenotypes of wheezing syndrome in early-age children. A controlled, non-randomized clinical trial was conducted involving 120 children with wheezing symptoms, aged between 5 and 7 years, divided into two groups: patients with episodic wheezing and patients with multi factorial wheezing syndrome. The study found that 66.7% of the patients had multi factorial wheezing syndrome, while 33.3% had episodic wheezing. Children with multi factorial wheezing syndrome had a higher incidence of rhinitis, hay fever, and allergic skin damage than those with episodic wheezing. Additionally, 72% of patients with multi factorial wheezing syndrome had a heavy hereditary anamnesis. Allergic reactions were present in 98.7% of patients with multi factorial wheezing and 77.8% of children with episodic wheezing. The study did not observe any signififi cant difference in the age of onset of the disease between the two groups. The causes of disease exacerbation in the multi factorial wheezing group were mainly viral infections and allergens, while in the episodic wheezing group, the primary trigger was viral infection. The study concluded that evaluating multivariate clinical features and using flfl exible mathematical approaches are necessary to improve the classififi cation of wheezing phenotypes, which would help in individual phenotypic therapy.