LUNG-FUNCTION IN YOUNG-ADULTS WHO HAD ASTHMA IN CHILDHOOD

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Abstract
Pulmonary function was measured in 277 subjects at 21 yr of age who wheezed before the age of 7 yr, and in a control group followed prospectively for 14 yr. The wheezing group covered the whole spectrum of childhood asthma. Subjects who had minor wheeze in childhood and who had been wheeze-free for at least 3 yr were, as a group, indistinguishable from the control group. There was an increasing incidence of abnormality with increasing frequency of wheezing. Subjects with chronic asthma had a large vital capacity relative to body size at 14 yr of age, but this abnormality was not present at 21 yr of age. Bronchial lability to exercise was not a constant finding, and its frequency and severity were related to the frequency of wheezing and baseline pulmonary function. About 60% of the subjects who ceased wheezing had abnormal bronchial reactivity to inhaled histamine. These subjects probably did not grow out of asthma.