الفهرس 
Infant WheezingOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Introduction: Wheezing is common throughout infancy and childhood except in the neonatal period when it is relatively rare. About 19% of 10-year-old children experience wheezing with an average age of onset of 3 years. Bronchiolitis and preschool recurrent wheeze (PSRW) are common pediatric problems causing significant morbidity and mortality in the first years of life. Infants and toddlers with atopy and recurrent wheeze early in life are at greater risk for childhood asthma than non-atopic subjects who wheeze.
Aim of the Work: We sought to investigate serum levels of IP-10 among infants presenting with wheezy chest to anticipate its role in infant wheezes, relation to severity of wheezing illness, presence of signs of respiratory infection or evidence of atopy.
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional controlled study that was carried out in the emergency department and the outpatient clinic of the Children’s Hospital, Ain shams university, Cairo, Egypt during the period from December 2014 to March 2015. Informed consent was obtained from parents or care giver of patients before enrolment in the study and the study protocol gained approval from the Ethics’ Committee of the Pediatric Department, Ain Shams University.
Results: The study enrolled 90 infants as a stratified non-random sample that is divided into three groups. Each group recruited its sample consecutively. group A: (n=40): This group included 40 infants who were presented with wheezy chest. group B (n=25): This group included 25 infants with clinical features suggestive of upper or lower respiratory tract infections (as low grade fever, cough, rhinorrea, conjunctivitis or croup) within 3 days before presentation, and without patient or family history suggestive of allergy. group C (n=25): This group included 25 healthy infants without history of wheezes and without symptoms of infection or allergic manifestations at time of enrolment. They were enrolled from the outpatient clinic while presenting for nutritional assessment or for circumcision in males.
Conclusion: our data suggest a possible link of serum IP-10 levels to infant wheezes which were not explained exclusively by the association with viral infection. These data might denote a possible future therapeutic role for IP-10 antagonist in severe cases of infant wheezing that are resistant to conventional therapy.
Recommendations: Further wider scale studies are recommended for better elucidation of the IP-10 expression and role in wheezing illness at different age groups.
Investigating various respiratory viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens in relation to serum IP-10 levels could be worthwhile.
Future studies may be required to investigate the impact of targeting IP-10 in severe cases of pediatric asthma or other wheezing illnesses.