Is there a need to improve asthma diagnosis in young athletes?

Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction Among Adolescent Athletes With Asthma: A Systematic Review

Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is a concern that frequently affects athletes and regular exercisers. The main objective of this systematic review is to study recently published literature that evaluated the risk of EIB among adolescent athletes with asthma. PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, EBSCO, SCOPUS, Wiley, and Cochrane Library were searched. Study articles were screened by title and abstract using Rayyan QCRI then a full-text assessment was implemented. A total of ten studies with 3129 adolescent athletic subjects were included in this review. The prevalence of EIB ranged from 2.1% to 61%. Most studies have demonstrated that athletes in their adolescence suffer from EIB, which requires regular management. Two studies have reported that low-income communities and humidity levels are risk factors for EIB. We found that EIB is frequent among adolescent athletes. The prevalence varies between countries due to different social and environmental factors.

Management of Intermittent and Persistent Asthma in Adolescent and High School Athletes

Asthma is the most common chronic condition during childhood and adolescence, affecting an estimated 8% of children and youngsters below 18 years in the United States and the United Kingdom. In adolescent athletes, asthma-like symptoms may represent a common consequence of regular sport practice. Asthma in young athletes poses several challenges, including the ambiguity of definitions and diagnosis of asthma resulting from exercise-induced symptoms, the best pharmacological treatments, and the nonpharmacological options for the management of disease and the challenges inherent to this age group. At a time when the regular practice of sports is increasingly being recommended for a healthy living, the support network around the young athletes is crucial to reduce the impact of asthma on their physical and emotional well-being. In this review, we examine the main issues around the definitions and clinical differentiations of asthma in young sport athletes. We discuss best practice approaches to improve the adherence to the clinical management, including nonpharmacological strategies directed at the family and trainers of athlete adolescents.

Pulmonary function as a limiting factor of middle distance race performance

Exercise induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is common and underdiagnosed phenomenon of yet largely unknown etiology. This study aimed to estimate prevalence of EIB in response to highly demanding skyscraper race and to test its association with race performance and hypothetical predisposing factors. Healthy participants (26 males, 8 females; 31.5 +/- 6.3 years) from mostly running-based amateur sports were measured for forced expiratory volume in first 1 s (FEV1) before and then repeatedly within 10 min after the completion of the 114 m skyscraper upstairs race. Allergy questionnaire (AQUA) data were collected and post-exercise blood lactate was measured. Over 40% of the participants developed >10% decrement in FEV1 shortly after all-out exercise. While EIB response was not associated with questionnaire-based atopic status, training background, gender, age, anthropometrics, pacing and exertion (estimated from the accumulated blood lactate values), participants exhibiting <10% decrement in FEV1 were faster, especially over the later stages of the race. In conclusion, nearly every other participant of the skyscraper race develops EIB not associated with training, demographic, anthropometric and atopic status, pacing and exertion (estimated from postexercise blood lactate), but the responders (FEV1 decrement >10%) were slower indicative of poorer fitness due to EIB developing during the exercise already.