Patient N.N.P (10 years old, Hanoi) has a history of allergic rhinitis and has regularly had episodes of respiratory infections since childhood. Every time symptoms such as cough, wheezing, wheezing appear, the child is often diagnosed with bronchiolitis or acute respiratory diseases.
After treatment for about 10-14 days, the condition improves but then recurs.
Three days before being admitted to the hospital, the child developed prolonged coughs accompanied by wheezing, wheezing, phlegm, runny nose and poor appetite. Although he had been given inhalation at home as before, the symptoms did not subside, so the family took the child to the Department of Pediatrics, National Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
According to Dr. Nguyen Manh Truong, Department of Pediatrics, National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, at the time of admission, the child did not show signs of severe respiratory failure. However, during examination, doctors recorded many tingling, snoring and wheezing sounds in the lungs.
Notably, medical history exploitation shows that children often cough at night or near dawn, and experience wheezing after exercise - typical signs of bronchial asthma.
Suspecting asthma, doctors prescribed respiratory function measurement. The results showed that the child's lifespan was only 58.4% compared to normal. The FEV1 index - a parameter reflecting the level of airway obstruction - only reached 47%, much lower than the normal threshold of over 70%.
After bronchospasm testing, the results were clearly positive, thereby determining that the child had bronchial asthma accompanied by severe obstructive ventilation disorder.
According to Dr. Nguyen Manh Truong, this is a fairly common situation in practice. Many children have bronchial asthma, but the initial symptoms are not typical, so they are easily confused with bronchitis or recurrent bronchiolitis.
Not all cases of recurrent cough are simple respiratory infections. When children frequently cough at night or near dawn, wheezing recurs, wheezing after exercise or respond to bronchodilators, parents should take their children to specialized facilities for assessment and measurement of respiratory function," Dr. Truong advised.
Experts say that respiratory function measurement is an important test to help diagnose bronchial asthma. Early detection not only helps to treat in the right direction but also reduces the risk of dangerous acute asthma attacks.
Bronchial asthma is a chronic disease common in children, especially in children with allergic constitutions such as allergic rhinitis, eczema or relatives with allergic diseases. Unlike respiratory infections that are only treated in courses, bronchial asthma needs to be monitored and controlled for a long time with preventive medicine.
According to doctors, children who are frequently diagnosed with recurrent bronchitis, have to use bronchodilators many times or have allergic constitutions should be examined by a specialist to detect bronchial asthma early, thereby treating and controlling the disease effectively, limiting acute episodes and the risk of hospitalization.
