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INTRODUCTION: Variable expiratory air flow due to bronchoconstriction, airway wall thickening and increased mucus is an obvious feature in asthma. Variable air flow obstruction is evidenced by reversibility of FEV1 following a bronchodilator inhalation. PFT (Pulmonary Function Testing) using spirometry is often used for the estimation of FEV1. Reversibility is not uniform in all cases and vary with respect to severity and control of asthma. AIMS & OBJECTIVES: 1) To determine the control of asthma in 5-15-year-old children using GINA checklist and estimate FEV1 before and after SABA nebulisation. 2) To find out the association between FEV1 reversibility and control of asthma. MATERIALS & METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 90 consecutive 5-15-year-old-children with a clinical diagnosis of asthma attending the Paediatric OPD of a teaching hospital from October-May 2021. The symptoms, signs, comorbidities, treatment, compliance and assessment of control of asthma into 2 subgroups: Well-controlled and Partly-controlled/Uncontrolled asthma, as per GINA 2020 were recorded. All were subjected to spirometry for assessment of FEV1 before and 20 minutes after nebulisation with SABA. Depending upon FEV1, they were grouped as those with >12% reversibility and <12% reversibility. Data analysed using SPSS 20.0, Paired t test for comparison of means, Chi-square test for statistical difference in proportion, and post hoc tests. The RESULTS: M:F ratio was 1.2:1, 52.2% were 10-15 years and 47.8% 5-10 years. 68.9% had partly/uncontrolled, the rest well-controlled asthma (38.1%). The difference between mean FEV1 before (67.9±10.6) and after nebulisation (80.6±9.7) was statistically significant (p<0.00*). Among those with >12 reversibility, 64.5% were in partly/uncontrolled and 35.5% in well-controlled asthma and the difference was statistically significant (p -0.013*). The CONCLUSION: finding in the study that 68.9% had partly/uncontrolled asthma is an eye-opener to optimise protocol-based treatment among children. The statistically significant difference of >12% before and after nebulisation a marker of poor control was observed in 64.5% of partly/uncontrolled asthma compared to 35.5% of well controlled asthma. Hence, the persistence of a significant degree of bronchodilator response noted in those with partly/uncontrolled asthma is recommended as an objective surrogate of poor asthma control in children who can co-operate for a PFT in order to optimise protocol-based treatment.
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Objective We aimed to translate the English version of Perceived Control of Asthma Questionnaire (PCAQ) into Chinese and to test the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of PCAQ in asthma patients.Methods Totally 125 patients with asthma were recruited and were investigated by the Chinese version of PCAQ.The results underwent reliability and validity test.Results The Cronbach's α coefficient of the Chinese version of PCAQ ranged from 0.815 to 0.904,higher than 0.7.The split half coefficient was 0.647; the test-retest reliability was 0.818,which showed that internal consistency of Chinese version of PCAQ was good.The content validity index was 0.952.Factor analysis got 3 factors,which explained 46.079％ of the total variance; the factor loading of each item was ＞0.4.Conclusions The Chinese version of PCAQ has been proved to be rehable and valid.It can be used as a valid tool for the measurement of perceived control in asthma patients.