All that Wheezes is not Asthma or Bronchiolitis

Erica Y Chou; Barry J Pelz; Asriani M Chiu; Paula J Soung

doi:10.1016/j.ccc.2021.11.002

All that Wheezes is not Asthma or Bronchiolitis

Crit Care Clin. 2022 Apr;38(2):213-229. doi: 10.1016/j.ccc.2021.11.002.

Authors

Erica Y Chou¹, Barry J Pelz², Asriani M Chiu², Paula J Soung³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9000 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
² Department of Pediatrics (Allergy and Immunology) and Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9000 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9000 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA. Electronic address: psoung@mcw.edu.

PMID: 35369944
DOI: 10.1016/j.ccc.2021.11.002

Abstract

Wheezing is a common finding across patients of all age groups presenting to the emergency department and being hospitalized for respiratory distress, with most patients responding to standard therapeutics and having readily apparent diagnoses of asthma or bronchiolitis. We describe several clinical entities that may present with wheezing and respiratory distress, calling attention to the broad differential that may masquerade as asthma or bronchiolitis, and potentially lead to misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or inappropriate treatment.

Keywords: Asthma; Asthma mimics; Bronchiolitis; Respiratory distress; Respiratory failure; Wheezing.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Asthma* / complications
Asthma* / diagnosis
Asthma* / therapy
Bronchiolitis* / complications
Bronchiolitis* / diagnosis
Bronchiolitis* / therapy
Humans
Respiratory Sounds / etiology