TY - JOUR T1 - Isolation of cells from the lower airways in infants with wheeze by sputum induction JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 483 LP - 485 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00160412 VL - 41 IS - 2 AU - Erol A. Gaillard AU - Jonathan Grigg AU - Ananth Tellabati AU - Teresa McNally AU - Amy Whittaker AU - Caroline S. Beardsmore Y1 - 2013/02/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/41/2/483.abstract N2 - To the Editor:Preschool wheezing affects up to 50% of children [1, 2], of whom approximately half will have stopped experiencing wheezy episodes by the age of 6 yrs [2]. Results from large cohort studies [2, 3] raise several important questions. First, when facing a child with preschool wheeze, how can we predict the natural history and identify those children who are going to grow out of their asthma by mid-childhood and distinguish them from those who develop classical, adult-type asthma? Secondly, how can we identify those children who are likely to benefit from treatment with inhaled corticosteroids, leukotriene receptor antagonists or both, in the absence of reliable immunological criteria underpinning these decisions? Airway inflammation is a key feature of asthma and is detectable in preschool children [4]. Obtaining lower-airway samples from preschool children usually involves bronchoalveolar lavage sampling under general anaesthesia and is therefore reserved for children with problematic severe asthma or where the diagnosis is in doubt [4].An alternative method of obtaining samples noninvasively from the lower airways is by sputum induction [5]. The use of induced sputum in infants has been limited [6–8] and inflammatory cell profiles have not been reported. Mussaffi et al. [6] performed the procedure in young children with cystic fibrosis and reported that the procedure was well tolerated, and there was a high success rate in nonexpectorating patients. Successful use of sputum induction in the diagnosis of tuberculosis was reported in 142 out of 149 infants with a median age of 9 months [ … ER -