Childhood asthma.

The prevalence of asthma and wheezing illness in children has increased substantially over recent decades and places a large burden on health care resources.Despite increasing evidence that both genetic and environmental factorshave significant effects on airway development and function in early life,our understanding of the natural history of the disease is limited.Several phenotypes of wheeze have been described and many risk factorsidentified for the development of asthma. A thorough knowledge of earlylife lung physiology will enable us to identify children at risk fordeveloping persistent disease. The development of objective outcomemeasures that can be applied in early life will aid in distinguishingbetween children with transient early wheeze and those who will progressto persistent disease, enabling effective, targetedtherapy.