Byoung-Ju Kim, MD, PhDa, So-Yeon Lee, MD, PhDb, Ji-Won Kwon, MDc, Young-Ho Jung, MDd, Eun Lee, MDd, Song I. Yang, MDd, Hyung-Young Kim, MDe, Ju-Hee Seo, MDf, Hyo-Bin Kim, MD, PhDg, Hwan-Cheol Kim, MD, PhDh, Jong-Han Leem, MD, PhDh, Ho-Jang Kwon, MD, PhDi, Soo-Jong Hong, MD, PhDd,*
1Department of Pediatrics, Inje University Haeundae Paik Hospital, Busan, Korea.
2Department of Pediatrics, Hallym Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Korea.
3Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.
4Department of Pediatrics, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
5Department of Pediatrics, Pusan National University Children's Hospital, Yangsan, Korea.
6Department of Pediatrics, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
7Department of Pediatrics, Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
8Department of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Inha University College of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
9Department of Preventive Medicine, Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea.
10Department of Pediatrics, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
To the Editor:
Air pollution contributes to the increasing trend of asthma. Many epidemiologic studies have revealed an association between air pollution and asthma. Recently, birth cohort studies in which individual levels of exposure were measured have investigated the causal effects of air pollution on the development of asthma and found that air pollution increases the risk of asthma.1-3 However, there are still conflicting results regarding the effects of air pollution on sensitization and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR),1,4,5 both of which are important intermediate asthma phenotypes and may provide key insights into the underlying mechanisms of asthma.