Childhood asthma mortality: the Brooklyn experience and a brief review

Pediatric asthma mortality is a perplexing and increasingly serious problem. Although many possible etiologic factors have been suggested, clear relationships are yet to be delineated. In addition to reviewing the literature, we studied the clinical and pathologic features of 14 local pediatric asthma deaths that occurred over a 7-year period. Thirteen of 14 children were African-American. Nine of 14 children (64.3) were older than 10 years of age, and 11 of 14 (78.6) were males. Based on a history of clinical features, 10 of the 14 children were characterized as severe asthmatics. Despite the fact that the majority of the children were regarded as severe asthmatics, only 1 of 14 had been evaluated with pulmonary function testing, and only 2 of 14 were receiving corticosteroids. Furthermore, only 2 of 14 were regarded as having good medical follow-up for their asthma. Ten of 14 children died suddenly secondary to asthma. One child was possibly abusing sympathomimetic inhalers, and none had evidence of toxic serum levels of theophylline. Six of 14 children (all adolescents) who died suddenly were negative on urine toxicology screening for cocaine, heroin, etc. Pathologic findings available for 10 children revealed mainly mucus plugging of the airways and collapse of various segments of the lungs, as well as pneumonia and pneumothorax in one child. In this group of children with sudden deaths (except for one child with pneumothorax), no other cause of death could be found.