Treating the wheezing infant

Abstract

The management of infants and small children with asthma is a challenging task because of the many issues unique to this age group that deserve special consideration. The diagnosis of asthma is limited by inherent difficulties in obtaining objective measures of lung function and airway inflammation. In persistently symptomatic patients, the decision to initiate controller therapy is not as great an issue as it is in infants and young children with recurrent episodic wheeze in whom early intervention may allow a window of opportunity potentially to alter the course of the disease. The reality is that even if atopy has been consistently implicated in the development of persistent asthma, there is not a well-established set of criteria by which patients who are likely to benefit from early intervention controller therapy can be identified. Hence, large prospective studies need to be performed evaluating the impact of early pharmacologic intervention on the natural history of infantile asthma. Many areas needing investigation involve what medications to use, how best to deliver the medications, and how to monitor the response to treatment. Only a few medications have been approved for use in this population. Long-term studies evaluating available drugs such as inhaled glucocorticoids, LABAs, and the leukotriene-modifying agents in young children still need to be performed.