[Prognosis of bronchial asthma]

Abstract

Little is known about the prognosis of asthma. Disease remission in adolescence has been reported to vary between 20-80%, but bronchial hyperresponsiveness can still be detected in most subjects even if they are without symptoms. The relapse rate of asthmatics who were without symptoms during adolescence amounts to about 30%. Severe disease at an early stage or in adolescence, atopy, atopic dermatitis, a high degree of bronchial hyperresponsiveness, severely impaired lung function and both active and passive smoking are risk factors and closely associated with a poor prognosis. The relevance of gender, age at onset or recurrent viral infections has not been clarified yet. The effect of environmental factors on the increasing incidence and the prognosis of asthma remains to be quantified.