الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
According to the WHO estimations, asthma deaths outnumbered more than 250,000 persons per year all over the world. Bronchial asthma is a significant health problem among children and adolescents in Egypt, occurring in 6.2% of preparatory school children in Upper Egypt. The prevalence of asthma has increased in developed countries over the past 40-50 years and similar trends are emerging in developing countries, especially as they adopt western ways. EIB is known as a temporary contraction of respiratory muscles after exercise that occurs frequently in subjects without diagnosis of asthma, especially athletes, changing with the intensity of exercise and the environment. Periostin is an extracellular matrix protein that contributes to subepithelial fibrosis. It is promising that periostin can be used as a noninvasive biomarker to monitor the asthma progression, select optimal therapy and act as a predictor for exacerbation risk and long term outcomes. This study aims to explore the relationship between serum periostin level and EIB in asthmatic children. The study was carried out on (90) ninety children including, (60) Sixty children with bronchial asthma and (30) thirty children were enrolled as control group. 1-Patient group: Was divided into 2 groups according to standardized treadmill exercise challenge test: group A: (30) thirty asthmatic children with positive exercise challenge test. group B: (30) thirty asthmatic children with negative exercise challenge test. II-Control group: (30) Thirty children apparently healthy (of matched age and sex), with no personal or family history of asthma, no allergic rhinitis nor atopic dermatitis, were enrolled as control group. All subjects were subjected to the following at the time of enrollment: 1- Thorough history taking and clinical examination and assessment of asthma control. 2- Chest x ray. 3- CBC with eosinophil count. 4- Pulmonary function test by spirometer (FEV1 and PEFR). 5- Serum level of periostin was measured by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).The result of the present study showed that: There were no significant differences between group A and group B as regard to the percentage of PEFR and FEV1 before exercise, however the mean values of both the percentage of PEFR and FEV1 after exercise in group A were significantly lower than those in group B and the percentage of PEFR and FEV1 after exercise in each group were significantly lower than the percentage before exercise in the same group. The mean value of eosinophilic count in group A was significantly higher than (group B and control group) and the mean value of eosinophilic count in group B was significantly higher than control group. The mean value of serum level of periostin in group A was significantly higher than (group B and control group), however, there was no significant difference between group B and control group as regard to serum level of periostin.