Airways hyperresponsiveness in high school athletes.
Adult athletes have a higher prevalence (11%-50%) of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) and airways hyperresponsiveness (AHR) than the population at large (7%-11%): reports describing EIB/AHR in adolescent athletes are scant.


OBJECTIVE
1) a minimum AHR prevalence of 20% would be revealed in a group of high school athletes; 2) demographic data would predict AHR; 3) AHR-positive athletes would preferentially choose low ventilation sports. Eucapnic voluntary hyperpnea (EVH) was used to test for AHR in 23% of all athletes (79 of 343) of a midwestern high school. The AHR was defined by at least a 10%, 20%, or 25% decline in FEV1, FEF25-75, or PEFR at 1, 5, 10, or 15-min post-EVH, respectively.


RESULTS
30 of 79 (38%) tested positive for AHR; demographic data tended to predict AHR, as correlations between the total number of years exercised with the greatest decline in FEV1 and the total number of days exercised with the greatest decline in FEV1 following the EVH challenge tended to be significant (r = 0.354; p = 0.055 and r=0.314; p = 0.091, respectively); and 69% of AHR-positive students played only low ventilation sports.


CONCLUSIONS
AHR prevalence was 38% in athletes of a midwestern high school; demographic data tended to predict AHR; those with AHR preferentially play low ventilation sports.
Mannix
Edward T
ET
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine, Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. emannix@iupui.edu
Roberts
Melanie A
MA
Dukes
Heather J
HJ
Magnes
Carolyn J
CJ
Farber
Mark O
MO
D000293:Adolescent; D016535:Bronchial Hyperreactivity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D013177:Sports