By opening up previously poorly ventilated lung regions, physiotherapy may either increase or decrease ventilation inhomogeneity; the short-term effect of physiotherapy on LCI appears to be unpredictable.

Background: Laser acupuncture, a painless technique, is a widely used alternative treatment method for childhood asthma, although its efficacy has not been proved in controlled clinical studies. Methods: A double blind, placebo controlled, crossover study was performed to investigate the possible protective effect of a single laser acupuncture treatment on cold dry air hyperventilation induced bronchoconstriction in 44 children and adolescents of mean age 11.9 years (range 7.5-16.7) with exercise induced asthma. Laser acupuncture was performed on real and placebo points in random order on two consecutive days. Lung function was measured before laser acupuncture, immediately after laser acupuncture (just before cold dry air challenge (CACh)), and 3 and 15 minutes after CACh. CACh consisted of a 4 minute isocapnic hyperventilation of -10°C absolute dry air. Results: Comparison of real acupuncture with placebo acupuncture showed no significant differences in the mean maximum CACh induced decrease in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (27.2 (18.2)% v 23.8 (16.2)%) and maximal expiratory flow at 25% remaining vital capacity (51.6 (20.8)% v 44.4 (22.3)%). Conclusions: A single laser acupuncture treatment offers no protection against exercise induced bronchoconstriction in paediatric and adolescent patients.

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In adolescence, some paediatric asthma patients will become symptom-free and require no further treatment. There is little information on the atopic status, lung function and bronchial responsiveness of these patients.Symptom-free asthma patients (n=118) aged 7.7-19.2 yrs, were evaluated 1 year after termination of therapy. Bronchial asthma had previously been diagnosed on the basis of recurrent wheezing episodes. Atopic status was assessed by skin-prick testing. Baseline lung function was measured by spirometry, flow-volume curve and plethysmography. Bronchial responsiveness was assessed nonpharmacologically by cold dry air challenge.Eighty one patients had at least one positive skin test result, and the remaining 37 were defined as nonatopic. In atopic subjects, the prevalence of bronchial hyperresponsiveness was significantly higher than in nonatopic patients (41 out of 81 versus 7 out of 37; p=0.001). Atopic subjects showed a significantly lower maximal expiratory flow at 25% remaining vital capacity (p<0.05) and a higher residual volume (p<0.05) than nonatopic subjects. Nonatopic subjects were significantly younger than atopic patients (p<0.01).These symptom-and medication-free paediatric and adolescent asthma patients could, thus, be divided into two groups: 1) atopic subjects with a tendency towards bronchial hyperresponsiveness; and 2) nonatopic subjects with better lung function and normal bronchial responsiveness. In view of the increased understanding of the epidemiology of early childhood wheezing, these findings support the concept of different pathogenic mechanisms underlying wheezing episodes in early childhood.

These results indicate that the stimulus applied and the bronchoconstrictor mechanism activated, and not the challenge protocol, determine the outcome of a cold air challenge. In clinical practice, a brief single step cold air challenge can substitute for a more time-consuming multiple step cold air challenge. As nonpharmacological challenges seem to measure a different type of bronchial responsiveness, neither a single step nor a multiple step cold air challenge can substitute for a pharmacological provocation.