Childhood asthma following hospitalization with acute viral bronchiolitis in infancy.

A prospective follow-up of 48 infants hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis in the first year of life revealed that 44 of these infants had symptoms suggestive of asthma in the 5 years following their initial illness (cumulative prevalence 92%). Symptoms became less frequent and less troublesome during the follow-up period. Thirty-five of these children visited the laboratory for clinical examination, pulmonary function testing, and histamine challenge. Twenty-five children were believed to have clinical evidence of asthma at the time of the laboratory visit (point prevalence 71%). Five children were unable to perform pulmonary function tests; 25 of the remaining 30 (67%) had a positive histamine challenge test. No relationship could be demonstrated between a clinical diagnosis of asthma, a family history of atopy, and the results of histamine challenge testing. These results question the relationship between the results of bronchial provocation tests and clinical asthma in this age group.