Background

Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease. Data on blood hyper-eosinophilia in pediatric patients are limited. less is known of the relation between blood eosinophilia and asthma severity.

Objective

To determine the impact of blood eosinophilia on the severity of asthma in children.

Methods

This is a retrospective and comparative study including children with asthma followed in the pneumology department B of the Abderrahmane Mami hospital. We defined two groups: group 1: children with asthma and a higher blood eosinophil count (n = 48), group 2: children with asthma without a higher blood eosinophil count (n = 102).

Results

We included 150 asthmatic children with sex ratio at 1.2, an average age at 8 years [2-17 years]. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups regarding age (8,1 vs 7,6 years), gender (p=1), socioeconomic conditions (p=0,11) and passive smoking (p=0,28). Analysis of childhood asthma severity parameters shows no difference between the 2 groups regarding hospitalization (p=0,27), the use of oral corticosteroid therapy (p=0,53) and an advanced level of GINA (p=0,24).

Conclusion

According to our study, blood hypereosinophilia does not seem to have a negative impact on the severity of the disease and hospitalization.