News in childhood asthma therapy

Research in the field of pediatric pulmonology, especially asthmology, has been intensified for the last couple of years. A large number of studies describe early wheezing episodes, risk factors, natural course of early childhood asthma. Besides this, literature shows a growing interest in epidemiology, genetics and virusology as predictive factors for development and clinical course of childhood asthma. In this paper, the authors are providing a review of recently published articles on asthma therapy based on phenotypes in terms of better understanding of asthma and asthma-like syndromes. Pediatric respiratory experts worldwide are equally positive in the following statements: real diagnosis leads to real therapy as soon as possible; inhaled corticosteroids are not recommended in very young infants especially if a positive effect is missing; long-term therapy with inhaled corticosteroids has to be scrutinized.