Childhood asthma - Causes, epidemiological factors and complications

Asthma is common in children and its prevalence in this age group is increa sing. While the reasons fur this reported increase, and indeed the true mag nitude of the increase, remain unclear, there can be no doubt that asthma i s now a major health problem in children worldwide. Fortunately, our knowle dge of the pathophysiology of asthma is also increasing. It is now known th at asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease regulated by a variety of media tors, of which perhaps the leukotrienes are among the must important. This new understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease has spurred the dev elopment of the antileukotriene agents, which can be expected to play an in creasingly important role in the management of childhood asthma.