Chronic pediatric pulmonary disease and primary humoral antibody based immune disease.

Chronic inflammation of the larger airways is a common occurrence in children. A number of factors such as younger age, premature birth, male gender, exposure to environmental smoke or pollution, and crowded housing can increase a child's susceptibility to chronic lung disease. Chronic bronchitis may be caused by an underlying humoral immunodeficiency if the clinical course is recurrent or prolonged. Primary humoral immunodeficiency accounts for approximately 70% of all immunodeficiencies. The differential of chronic bronchitis also includes Cystic Fibrosis, ciliary defects and immune cellular and phagocytic defects. This review will summarize the most common humoral antibody based immune based deficiencies associated with chronic pulmonary disease.