Pediatric Wheezing: If Not Asthma, Then What is It?

“A featured science session at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) addressed the issue of pediatric wheezing and the possible diagnoses beyond EIA. ‘Unfortunately, it's all too common for athletes to be diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma, only to miss the real source of the wheezing,’ said Dr. Ouellette. Asthma is certainly a problem for children and receives a considerable amount of attention because of environmental causes such as second-hand smoke and air pollution. According to the American Lung Association, asthma is the most common chronic disorder in children, currently affecting an estimated 6.8 million children under 18 years old, of which 4.1 million suffered from an asthma attack or episode in 2006 according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In a recent study, researchers from the University of Iowa examined 142 pediatric patients referred for exercise-induced dypsnea, 98 of whom had been presumed to have EIA by their primary care physician. Upon further examination, only 11 patients (9 percent) actually had EIA. Seventy-four (63 percent) patients were exercising too hard or were not properly conditioned for their activity level. Other diagnoses included restrictive abnormalities (13 percent), and vocal cord dysfunction (11 percent), among others.”

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/pediatric-wheezing-if-not-asthma-then-what-is-it,413779.shtml