Diagnostic criteria and predictive tools for asthma in preschool-aged children

Abstract

Preschool-aged children are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma compared with elder children or adolescents.Diagnosis might be a great challenge for clinical physicians due to its specialties in symptom patterns, phenotype classifications and difficulties to apply measurements.For decades researches based on the diagnosis and prediction of asthma in preschool-aged children have never been stopped, meanwhile efforts should be made on the development of the diagnostic criteria for Chinese preschool-aged children.This article places spotlight on the development of diagnosis and prediction of asthma in early childhood throughout the world, thus provide references for the establishment of the diagnostic criteria for Chinese preschool-aged children. Key words: Preschool-aged children; Asthma; Diagnostic criteria; Predictive tool