mAPI: modified asthma predictive index
Montelukast therapy to patients was started as 4 mg / day under 5 years of age, 5 mg / day for those 5 years and they were asked to take it regularly every day. The first control was done in the second month and the second control in the fifth month. During the control, the patients were questioned whether they had an attack of wheezing, their physical examinations were performed, and the response to montelukast was evaluated. Montelukast was generally well tolerated and was discontinued in only 1 patient because of discomfort and was excluded from the study. No significant side effects were reported in other patients.
This study was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This research project is approved by The Research and Ethics Committee of Mersin University with the project number 2020/790.
Statistical Analysis
Mean Standard Deviation, Median, Minimum, Maximum values were given in descriptive statistics for continuous variables, and percentages were given for discrete variables. The compliance of the variables to normal distribution was examined using the Shapiro-Wilk test. Wilcoxon test was used to compare the pre-treatment and 1st control attack numbers of the patients. Mann Whitney U test was used to compare the number of attacks between groups. Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact tests were used for group comparisons of nominal variables. IBM SPSS Statistics version 21 program was used for evaluations and p < 0.05 was accepted as the statistical significance limit.
RESULTS
The total of 141 children who applied with wheezing complaints were included in the study. 29.8% of the patients were girls (n=42) and 70.2% were boys (n=99). The mean age of the children was 50.18 ± 17.66 (15-76) months. The mean age of first attack was 12.73 ± 5.53 months, and the median number of attacks before treatment was 2 (2-3). In 2.8% of the patients, eczema, in 12.8% of them, rhinitis and in 26.7% of them, elevated eosinophils were detected. IgE levels were 148.25 ± 279.20 IU/mL. 3.3% of the patients had Fx5 food allergy, 12.6% had a Phdiotop inhaler screening panel, and 25.9% had a positive prick test. API indexes were positive in 28.4% of patients and 84.4% of them had EVW.
There were 141 patients who had their first controls and 95 patients who had their second controls. When the number of attacks before treatment and control attacks were compared, a difference was found between the patients (p <0.001). The decrease in the number of attacks was found to be statistically significant (Table 2).
Table 2: The number of before treatment and control attacks of the patients