• Maria Angela Tosca, Michela Silvestri, Giovanni Arturo Rossi, and Giorgio Ciprandi.
• Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy Unit, Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy.
• Allergol Immunopathol (Madr). 2013 Nov 1; 41 (6): 359-63.

BackgroundVisual Analogue Scale (VAS) has been proposed as a useful tool for assessing the perception of asthma symptoms, a cornerstone in disease management. While airway flow limitation and its reversibility are thought to be a useful marker of disease severity, there are very few studies that evaluated the response to bronchodilation (BD) testing perception by VAS. To investigate whether VAS assessment of breathlessness perception could provide a useful tool to assess the response to BD testing in asthmatic children.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included a total of 150 children (96 males, mean age 11.05 years) with asthma, 50 had bronchial obstruction (i.e. FEV1 <80% of predicted). Perception of breathlessness was assessed by VAS; lung function was measured by spirometry. BD testing was performed in all children.ResultsIn children with bronchial obstruction, VAS at baseline was 4.7 and significantly increased to 6.9 (p<0.001) after BD. In children without bronchial obstruction, VAS at baseline was 7.4, but further significantly increased to 8.4 after BD testing (p<0.01). There was a significant difference in Δ VAS between children with bronchial reversibility and children without it (p<0.0001).ConclusionsThe present study demonstrates that VAS might be considered an initial tool to assess the BD response in children with asthma, mainly with overt bronchial obstruction.Copyright © 2012 SEICAP. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

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