Outcome of wheezing in early childhood.

UNLABELLED: In Acta Paediatrica 50 y ago, Boesen published a follow-up of children with "asthmatic bronchitis". Recent reinvestigations of children hospitalized because of wheezing in early childhood are remarkably consistent with Boesen's observations.

CONCLUSION

Young children admitted to hospital because of wheezing have a clearly increased risk of subsequent asthma. Recent studies confirm Boesen's observations of the prognostic importance of eosinophilia and an inverse relation between age at admission with wheezing and risk of subsequent asthma. Allergy or atopic dermatitis is predictive of subsequent asthma, whereas family history of allergy has low predictive value in infants.