Childhood asthma and atmospheric conditions

Bronchial asthma is the most common chronic respiratory illness in childhood. It is characterized by paroxysmal bronchospastic periods. There are many studies giving reasons to explain the bronchospasm periods. One of the reasons, atmospheric conditions, is effective in creating a clinical picture of asthmatic patients. In the present study, the correlation between atmospheric conditions and asthmatic symptoms in children was investigated using peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) as the respiratory function test. Twenty-one children with bronchial asthma were monitored in the study. They were followed as outpatients of the Ege University Medical Faculty, Department of Pediatric Allergy and Pneumotology, between November 1993 and June 1994. Atmospheric conditions were recorded from the local meteorology center. Complaints and the PEFR of children were compared with the meteorological data. Asthmatic symptoms were increased by low temperatures in all asthmatic children. An increase was detected in the extrinsic group by relative humidity and ratio of cloud, but in the intrinsic group only by relative humidity.