Abstract
The bronchial hyperreactivity threshold, the ventilatory function, and the exercise tolerance test were evaluated at the times of hospital admission and discharge, recruiting 214 pediatric patients with bronchial asthma who were hospitalized in a facility. These patients were divided into 2 groups according to the hyperreactivity threshold (<1250μg/ml and ≥1250μg/ml) measured at the hospital admission, and factors affecting bronchial hyperreactivity, ventilatory function, and exercise tolerance test were also studied. The results are as follows: 1) all of the cases showed marked improvement in all of the tests at the time of hospital discharge, compared with those at the time of admission; 2) in patients who showed a lower hypersensitivity threshold (<1250μg/ml) at the hospital admission, the duration from the time when perennial asthma was confirmed to the hospital admission was longer, and βMDI was used at a higher frequency; 3) the rest of the patients (hyperreactivity threshold ≥1250μg/ml) showed better ventilatory function and exercise tolerance test results at both times of hospital admission and discharge, compared with the lower threshold group. Thus, it appears that inpatient therapy should be considered for the cases where asthma attacks are poorly controlled with various drugs and where adequate environmental arrangement inside/outside of the house and training are not possible.
