Management of childhood asthma.

Abstract

Asthma can be considered a combination of three features, airways obstruction with spontaneous and pharmacologic reversibility, increased airways responsiveness to exogenous and endogenous stimuli and airways inflammation. ~he current view is that the airway inflammation is central to these changes. The inflammatory response mobilizes and activates mast cells, neutrophils, macrophages, platelets and eosinophils with the release of chemical mediators such as histamine, leukotrines, prostaglandin, thromboxane and platelet activating factors. I From the advances in understanding the pathogenesis of asthma, it is clear that use of antinflammatory drugs form the mainstay of long term treatment of asthma.