[Histamine provocation test in children]

Bronchial challenge testing by means of histamine inhalation is one of the classical methods to examine bronchial response in children. There are some special problems, in particular, a limited cooperation in forced breathing manoeuvres which are performed to control lung function during the challenge procedure etc. In addition, we must be aware of the difficulties to quantify the histamine dose due to a strong variability of breathing. The evaluation of results is aggravated by a marked age dependency of the threshold of bronchial response and by a strong overlapping of the histamine response between healthy children and those suffering from bronchial hyperreactivity. In school-children a bronchial hyperreactivity is established, if a bronchoconstriction occurs below a histamine concentration of less than or equal to 1000 mg/ml.