Asthma: endotypes and phenotypes at a pediatric age

Abstract

The concepts of endotype and phenotype have been introduced in the past few years with the purpose of identifying the different variants of asthma in children and adults by the interaction of epigenetic factors, such as genotype, environmental factors, and not inherited factors. All these factors participate in the onset and progression of asthma, as well as environmental allergens, which are the cause of asthma in most children and teenagers. The latest onset may be induced by the characteristics of the environment, as happens in most adults (occupational asthma). In a review of a hundred medical records of children with and without a family history, and of a group of patients in whom high IgE levels were not detected, clear differences were observed in terms of the age of onset and other characteristics, although the sensitization to allergens was very similar in those three groups (Dermatophagoides mites).

Keywords

• asma
• endotipo
• fenotipo
• genética