Respiratory Viruses in Bronchiolitis and Their Link to Recurrent Wheezing and Asthma
Bronchiolitis is the leading cause of hospitalization for children younger than 1 year of age and these hospitalized children have an increased risk for developing childhood asthma. It remains unclear, however, which children who have severe bronchiolitis (eg, an episode requiring hospitalization) will develop recurrent wheezing or asthma. Although many environmental and genetic factors may play a role in the pathway from bronchiolitis to asthma, this article focuses on the viruses that have been linked to bronchiolitis and how these viruses may predict or contribute to future wheezing and asthma. The article also discusses vitamin D as an emerging risk factor for respiratory infections and wheezing.
aDepartment of Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Main Clinical Building 9 South, #9157, Boston, MA 02115, USA
bDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 326 Cambridge Street, Suite 410, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Corresponding author.
This work was supported by grants K23 AI-77801 and U01 AI-67693 from the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD) and the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for D-receptor Activation Research (Boston, MA).
ABSTRACT