title: Reported Exercise-Related Respiratory Symptoms and Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction in Asthmatic Children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Unlimited physical activity is one of the key issues of asthma control and management. We investigated how reliable reported exercise-related respiratory symptoms (ERRS) are in predicting exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) in asthmatic children.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this prospective study, 179 asthmatic children aged 7 - 15 years were asked for specific questions on respiratory symptoms related to exercise and allocated into two groups according to whether they complained about symptoms. Group I (n = 134) consisted of children answering "yes" to one or more of the questions and group II (n = 45) consisted of children answering "no" to all of the questions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-four of 179 children showed a positive exercise challenge test (ECT). There was no difference in the frequency of a positive test between children in group I (n = 48) and group II (n = 12) (P = 0.47). The sensitivity of a positive report for ERRS to predict a positive ECT was only 37%, with a specificity of 0.72.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to current guidelines, the report or lack of ERRS has direct consequences on treatment decisions. However, the history of ERRS did not predict EIB and one-third of asthmatic children without complaints of ERRS developed EIB during the ECT. This raises the question of the need for objective measures of bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) in pediatric asthma management.
authors.affiliation: Division of Respiratory Medicine, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Demet
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Inci
authors.affiliation: Division of Respiratory Medicine, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Refoel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guggenheim
authors.affiliation: Division of Paediatric Allergy and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cukurova, 01330 Balcali, Saricam/Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Derya Ufuk
authors.initials: DU
authors.lastname: Altintas
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Cantonal Hospital Fribourg, HFR 1708 Freiburg, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Johannes H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wildhaber
authors.affiliation: Division of Respiratory Medicine, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moeller
keywords: Children; Exercise challenge test; Exercise-induced asthma; Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction; Respiratory symptoms