[Epidemiological study of asthma in school age children at Bordeaux. Investigation by questionnaires and functional respiratory examinations by flow-volume curves (author's transl)].

The first results of a survey involving 1950 children from 6 to 12 years old living in Bordeaux are presented here. For 280 of them, who had attacks of asthma or showed other closely related signs, a questionnaire was filled out by the parents. On this basis, the main features of the disease, as well as the ORL bronchial and allergological course, were specified for a representative epidemiological population (with a distinction between actual asthma and disappeared asthma, distribution according to sex and age of the first attack). A functional examination by flow-volume curve for 111 of the children showed, using maximal flow measurement (particularly V 50 and V 25), the existence of modifications of the bronchial paths that were not detected by classical spirometric parameters.