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Over 6 million children in our country have been diagnosed with asthma. However, a recent study conducted at Columbus Children’s Hospital found that three out of four children who appeared to have asthma actually had good oxygen levels. Instead of asthma, they suffered from vocal cord dysfunction or VCD. Misdiagnosis can occur because the symptoms are similar. When a child enters the emergency room and can’t breathe, people may readily assume that the child is having an asthma attack, and treat the child with asthma medicines and/or steroids.
However, the treatment for VCD is different from the treatment for asthma. Instead of medicines, children with VCD need to learn breathing exercises to help them cope. One child explained the symptoms of VCD like this, “My whole throat was closed. I just couldn’t skate. It was scary.”
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Doctors can actually tell the difference between VCD and an asthma attack in just a few seconds by using a simple breathing test called spirometry. One researcher suggested that using the machine for a few seconds might help keep children who don’t have asthma out of the hospital. The same researcher, McCoy, also added that using the machine would prevent exposing children to medications that they don’t need.
The study only looked at 20 children who had been diagnosed with asthma. Researchers ruled out asthma in 15 of these cases, raising questions about how many other children in our country are being improperly treated for asthma. Children can suffer from both asthma and VCD, the only way to know for sure is to have emergency rooms use the spirometry breathing test before they begin treatment.
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Asthma & Kids Fact Sheet/Natl Center for Health Statistics, American Lung Association, August 2006 –
Pulse Oximetry Coupled With Spirometry in the Emergency Department Helps Differentiate and Asthma Exacerbation From Possible Vocal Cord Dysfuntion, Pediatric Pulmonology, July 2007, Volume 42 Issue 7, pages 605-609
