key: cord-0755159-pkfhux5a
authors: Tosca, Maria A.; Crocco, Marco; Girosi, Donata; Olcese, Roberta; Schiavetti, Irene; Ciprandi, Giorgio
title: Unaffected asthma control in children with mild asthma after COVID‐19
date: 2021-07-15
journal: Pediatr Pulmonol
DOI: 10.1002/ppul.25567
sha: 990abf393d0f353d0de4d1fcfe2be52c1168aa5d
doc_id: 755159
cord_uid: pkfhux5a

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The diagnosis of asthma was previously performed according to validated criteria (GINA guidelines), and treatment was tailored based on asthma control and severity levels. During this pandemic period, telemedicine has been implemented. Consequently, we timely and continuously performed consultations. In this regard, it has to be noted that we always contacted the children's families before the scheduled visit, also requiring information about suspected COVID-19 ("COVID-19 triage"). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients did not attend the clinic, but doctors provided a phone-based consultation. If the asthma control was satisfactory, the At baseline, such as immediately before COVID-19, nine (56.3%) children had intermittent asthma and seven (43.8%) mild. The severity of COVID-19 was mild in nine (56.3%) children and moderate in four (25%); three had asymptomatic COVID-19. The intragroup analysis showed that the asthma control level did not significantly change, even though there was an improvement trend as the controlled children passed from 9 to 14, whereas partly controlled children diminished from 7 to 2 (p = .06). The inhaled corticosteroid dosage remained essentially unchanged.

Asthma exacerbations tended to decrease. As concerns lung function, all parameters tended to increase even though without statistical significance. Reversibility, such as positive response to bronchodilation test, was unmodified.

These findings seemed to suggest that COVID-19 prevalence in a large group of asthmatic children followed in a tertiary allergy/asthma clinic could be low, at least in the considered period. Moreover, these results showed that COVID-19 did not affect the asthma control in the followed children with mild asthma.

However, the current experience had some limitations. First, we considered a selected population of children followed by a tertiary allergy/asthma clinic and consequently treated with the goldstandard care level. Moreover, the study was cross-sectional; further visits could give definitive outcomes about the COVID-19 impact on asthma. The number of COVID-19 children with asthma was small; thus, some subjects might have had asymptomatic COVID-19 or missed diagnosis.

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