ASTHMA AND WHEEZING IN THE FIRST 6 YEARS OF LIFE

Background. Many young children wheeze during viral respiratory infect ions, but the pathogenesis of these episodes and their relation to the development of asthma later in life are not well understood. Methods. In a prospective study, we investigated the factors affecting wheezin g before the age of three years and their relation to wheezing at six years of age. Of 1246 newborns in the Tucson, Arizona, area enrolled b etween May 1980 and October 1984, follow-up data at both three and six years of age were available for 826. For these children, assessments in infancy included measurement of cord-serum IgE levels (measured in 750 children), pulmonary-function testing before any lower respiratory tract illness had occurred (125), measurement of serum IgE levels at nine months of age (672), and questionnaires completed by the children 's parents when the children were one year old (800), Assessments at s ix years of age included measurement of serum IgE levels (in 460), pul monary-function testing (526), and skin allergy testing (629). Results . At the age of six years, 425 children (51.5 percent) had never wheez ed, 164 (19.9 percent) had had at least one lower respiratory tract il lness with wheezing during the first three years of life but had no wh eezing at six years of age, 124 (15.0 percent) had no wheezing before the age of three years but had wheezing at the age of six years, and 1 13 (13.7 percent) had wheezing both before three years of age and at s ix years of age. The children who had wheezing before three years of a ge but not at the age of six had diminished airway function (length-ad justed maximal expiratory flow at functional residual capacity [V(max) FRC]) both before the age of one year and at the age of six years, wer e more likely than the other children to have mothers who smoked but n ot mothers with asthma, and did not have elevated serum IgE levels or skin-test reactivity. Children who started wheezing in early life and continued to wheeze at the age of six were more likely than the childr en who never wheezed to have mothers with a history of asthma (P<0.001 ), to have elevated serum IgE levels (P<0.01) and normal lung function in the first year of life, and to have elevated serum IgE levels (P<0 .001) and diminished values for V(max)FRC (P<0.01) at six years of age . Conclusions. The majority of infants with wheezing have transient co nditions associated with diminished airway function at birth and do no t have increased risks of asthma or allergies later in life, In a subs tantial minority of infants, however, wheezing episodes are probably r elated to a predisposition to asthma.