Early intervention with inhaled steroids in childhood asthma

Abstract

Early introduction of inhaled steroids as a treatment for childhood asthma is recommended in the guidelines to achieve not only early control of symptoms with an improvement in patients' quality of life, but also for the inhibition of airway remodeling. The evidence suggesting clinical usefulness of early intervention with inhaled steroids exists in school-age or older children with asthma. However, further investigations are required to determine the value of early intervention with inhaled steroids in asthmatic infants and very young children, because the disease concept and diagnosis of asthma, as well as clinical usefulness and adverse reactions to inhaled steroids, have not been sufficiently investigated.