next front |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |6 |7 |8 |9 |10 |11 |12 |13 |14 |15 |16 |17 |18 |19 |20 |21 |22 |23 |24 |25 |26 |review
Asthma is a clinical syndrome characterised by often intermittent wheeze due to airway obstruction and inflammation.

Atopy refers to the allergic disposition of an individual. In many large epidemiological surveys, a positive (>3mm) wheal response to one of a battery of allergenic substances on skin prick testing is used to classify a child as atopic.

The review by Pearce et al suggests that the proportion of child asthma cases due to atopy is less than half at the population level.