Abstract 221

Background and Aims: Many children who wheeze in their early years will "outgrow" their asthma, but in some, asthma symptoms return in adulthood. The reason for this is unclear. It is important to know whether these children exhibit continuing airways inflammation, despite the absence of asthmatic symptoms. We studied 18 children attending the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children for elective surgery who previously had episodes of wheezing and/or cough, which had been diagnosed as asthma. No symptoms had been present for 12 months. Patients underwent a non bronchoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL, 20 ml saline) after induction of anaesthesia. The total and differential white cell counts were determined and compared with our normal values (n=121). A detailed clinical history was taken.

Results: The eosinophil percentage in the BAL from the asthma outgrown group was higher than in the normal group (0.21 vs. 0.09%, p=0.066), but this did not achieve statistical significance. Three out of 18 in the asthma outgrown group had elevated eosinophils. The percentage of all other cell types did not differ between the groups.

Conclusions: The preliminary data in this study suggests that children who have had no asthma symptoms for 12 months, have no significant airway inflammation. The trend towards higher percentage of eosinophils may, however, represent resolving inflammation. The persistent BAL eosinophilia observed in 3/18 subjects may predict those children who will have asthma again later in life. Supported by: The National Asthma Campaign (UK)