Cross- sectional study: Asthma in children aged 2 to 5 years identified with Asthma Predictive index in two hospi-tals, Cuenca, Ecuador. June 2015 - January 2016

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a chronic disease, which impacts in the patient’s life quality, it is generally diagnosed from six years of age; however it has been reported that asthma manifests itself even in preschool age with recurrent wheezing, but due to difficult diagnosis at this age, several index have been developed as useful diagnostic tools. The main purpose of this research is to characterize sibilant patients from 2 to 5 years according to the API(Asthma Predictive Index) criteria. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study was carried out with all the patients from 2 to 5 years who attended to a medical appointment at Pediatrics department from Hospital Monte Sinaí and Hospital Militar from June 2015 to January 2016 with recurrent wheezing as the inclusion criteria. The Castro – Rodríguez Asthma Predictive Index questionnaires were applied, it contained major criteria (medical diagnosis of eczema, history of asthma in pa-rents and relatives) and minor criteria (medical diagnosis of allergic rhinitis, wheezing not associated with colds, eosi-nophilia> 4%). We also included the variables: age, sex, height, weight and body mass index. RESUlTS: A total population of 105 children was obtained, 92.4% of them were API positive and 7.6% negative. 60% of the patients had medical diagnosis of eczema, 36.2% had familiar history of asthma. Recurrent wheezing not associated with colds was the most frequent minor criteria with 93.3%, 85.7% had medical diagnosis of allergic rhinitis, and 45.71% had eosinophilia > 4%. We found statistical significant association between age and eczema diagnosis, and between age and eosinophilia > 4%. There was not association between nutritional conditions and being API positive. There was statistical significant association between sex and allergic rhinitis, and between sex and not cold related wheezing. CONClUSION: The API index is an easy application tool to characterize and identify preschool sibilant children with high risk of developing asthma later in childhood. KEYWORDS: ASTHMA, WHEEZING, PRESCHOOL CHILDREN, ECZEMA, ALLERGIC RHINITIS