TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Childhood Asthma A1 - Hershey, Gurjit K. Khurana A2 - Kline, Mark W. PY - 2018 T2 - Rudolph's Pediatrics, 23e AB - Asthma is a chronic condition associated with significant health and economic burden to patients, families, and society. Its symptoms of cough, wheeze, shortness of breath, and chest tightness are associated with variable airflow limitation that is at least partly reversible. Asthma is estimated by the World Health Organization to affect 150 million people worldwide, and its global pharmacotherapeutic costs exceed $5 billion per year. Although patients suffering from asthma share similar clinical symptoms, the disease itself is heterogeneous in terms of phenotypes and natural history. This heterogeneity is compounded by combinations of environmental exposures that occur in utero, in early life, and across the life span, which contribute to the difficulty in both studying and treating asthma. This challenge is especially evident in children, for whom asthma remains the leading cause of emergency care and hospitalization rates continue to rise. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1182916877 ER -