Predicting Progression to School Aged Asthma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Pre-school Wheeze: Predicting Progression to School Aged Asthma
IRAS ID
290688
Contact name
Louise Fleming
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
21ICC6621, Sponsor Reference Number
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Wheezing disorders are common in preschool children and can affect up to half of children aged below 5 years. Approximately one-third of preschool wheezers develop asthma by school age. Much of our understanding of the risk factors for developing asthma comes from birth cohort studies where risk factors such as early allergic sensitisation, viral infection, tobacco smoke exposure and abnormalities of lung development have been found.
Investigating the influence of environmental and host factors in pre-school years that lead to childhood asthma will allow improved accuracy of predicting asthma development. This will also enable identification of clinical features and modifiable factors that lead to the development of asthma and potential therapeutic targets for future intervention studies.
Our research group has previously studied children of preschool age with severe wheeze who underwent clinical bronchoscopy and looked in detail at the fluid samples obtained from their breathing tubes (lower airways) specifically for bacterial and viral infections. We found differences in the types of bacteria and cells (inflammation) seen in the airway fluid from children with severe preschool wheeze as compared to those without. We are now very interested in finding out how this relates to outcomes at school age in terms of developing asthma or breathing problems. This will allow us to understand the significance of lung inflammation and infection in preschoolers that can pave the way for future work on potential treatment in this group.
This study will aim to follow-up the children that had bronchoscopy at preschool age to see whether or not they have a diagnosis of asthma, allergies and assess infection and inflammation in their airways. We will relate their clinical status to our findings from the preschool years to identify predictors of asthma, so that in future studies we can intervene early and try to prevent asthma.
REC name
London - Harrow Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/0422
Date of REC Opinion
4 Jun 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion