Definitions are important and not all wheeze is asthma
- Martha Scott1,2,
- Ramesh J Kurukulaaratchy1,2,
- S Hasan Arshad1,2
- 1The David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre, St Mary's Hospital, Newport, Isle of Wight, UK
- 2School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
- Accepted 6 August 2010
- Published Online First 10 September 2010
We read with great interest the paper by Moncayo et al1 showing a predominance of non-atopic compared with atopic wheeze in children in rural Ecuador. Undoubtedly their study adds to the literature regarding the influence of environmental factors, particularly chronic helminth infections, on wheezing phenotypes. However, we feel that the interpretation and presentation of findings in this paper is open to question. This concern stems from the authors' lack of distinction between wheeze and asthma. While the analysis focused predominantly on current wheeze, …
